Basketball Game Preview: Hunt Warriors vs. East Wake Warriors

Hunt is 2-7 against East Wake since December of 2018 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Friday. The Hunt Warriors will be playing at home against the East Wake Warriors at 7:30 p.m. Both teams are coming into the match red-hot, with Hunt sitting on five straight wins and East Wake on three.

Hunt is headed in fresh off scoring the most points they have all season. They came out on top against Southern Wayne by a score of 74-66 on Tuesday. Given the Warriors' advantage in MaxPreps' North Carolina basketball rankings (they are ranked 173rd, while the Saints are ranked 522nd), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Hunt found their leader in sophomore Na'Sir Hines, who went 7 of 13 en route to 15 points along with six assists and six boards. The team also got some help courtesy of Austin Joyner, who went 5 of 12 on his way to 15 points and three steals.

Meanwhile, East Wake humbled West Johnston with an 80-39 victory. With the Warriors ahead 46-25 at the half, the game was all but over already.

Hunt pushed their record up to 9-4 with the victory, which was their third straight on the road. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 65.7 points per game. As for East Wake, they have been performing well recently as they've won four of their last five contests, which provided a nice bump to their 5-7 record this season.

Hunt came up short against East Wake when the teams last played back in February of 2024, falling 64-59. Can Hunt avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.