Franklinton is on a three-game streak of home wins, while Northern Nash is on a three-game streak of away wins: one of those streaks is about to end. The Franklinton Rams will take on the Northern Nash Knights at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Expect the scorekeeper to be kept busy: if their previous games are any indication, both teams will really light up the scoreboard.
Last Friday, Franklinton didn't have too much trouble with Bunn at home as they won 62-48. 62 seems to be a good number for Franklinton as the squad scooped up a victory with the same number of points in their previous game.
It was another big night for Markelle Massenburg, who dropped a double-double on 26 points and 11 rebounds. He is on a roll when it comes to points, as he's now scored 18 or more in the last four games he's played. Another player making a difference was Sean Smith, who scored 14 points.
Meanwhile, Northern Nash's and Nash Central's match on Tuesday was close at halftime, but Northern Nash turned on the heat in the second half with 51 points. Northern Nash blew past Nash Central 76-48 at home. Given Northern Nash's advantage in MaxPreps' North Carolina basketball rankings (they are ranked 147th, while Nash Central is ranked 573rd), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Izeal Mallory II continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines, scoring 20 points along with three steals. The team also got some help courtesy of Randall King, who scored 18 points along with six rebounds.
Franklinton is on a roll lately: they've won three of their last four matchups, which provided a massive bump to their 8-11 record this season. As for Northern Nash, their win bumped their record up to 14-7.
Some high-performance offense is likely on the agenda as both teams are some of the highest scoring teams in the league. Franklinton hasn't had any problem running up the score this season, having averaged 55.1 points per game. However, it's not like Northern Nash struggles in that department as they've been averaging 62.8 points per game. With both teams so easily able to put up points, the only question left is who can run the score up higher.
Franklinton came up short against Northern Nash in their previous meeting back in January, falling 53-45. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of King, who scored 13 points along with seven assists and three steals. Now that Franklinton knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.
