Riverside-Durham is 2-8 against Hillside since November of 2018 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Friday. The Riverside-Durham Pirates will head out on the road to take on the Hillside Hornets at 8:00 p.m. One thing working in Riverside-Durham's favor is that they have posted big point totals in their last three contests.
Riverside-Durham pushed their score all the way to 60 on Friday, but even that wasn't enough to win. They fell just short of Northern Durham by a score of 63-60. Despite running the score up even higher than they did in their prior game on Tuesday (55), Riverside-Durham still had to take the loss.
Riverside-Durham's defeat shouldn't obscure the performances of Corey Hairston Jr., who scored 29 points along with two steals, and Mekhi Sneed who scored 14 points along with six assists and three steals. As a matter of fact, that's the most points Hairston Jr. has scored all season. The team also got some help courtesy of Daniel Kelleh, who scored no points along with seven assists and four steals.
Meanwhile, Hillside had already won two in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 11 points), and they went ahead and made it three on Friday. They came out on top in a nail-biter against Jordan and snuck past 55-52. The score was all tied up 23-23 at the break, but Hillside was the better team in the second half.
Hillside's win was the result of several impressive offensive performances. One of the most notable came from Jayde Braswell, who scored 16 points along with two steals. Braswell hasn't dropped below 15 points for three straight games. Another player making a difference was Sulaiman Shackelford, who scored 16 points.
Riverside-Durham has been struggling recently, as they've lost three of their last four contests, which put a noticeable dent in their 12-7 record this season. As for Hillside, they pushed their record up to 13-5 with that win, which was their 13th straight at home dating back to last season.
Friday's contest is shaping up to be a masterclass in shooting: Riverside-Durham have been dynamite from deep this season, having made 41.6% of their threes per game. However, it's not like Hillside struggles in that department as they've made 41.1% of their threes per game this season. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
Riverside-Durham strolled past Hillside in their previous meeting on January 12th by a score of 73-54. One of the biggest obstacles the team faced in that game was Braswell, who scored 20 points along with five rebounds and two steals. Now that he's got a second chance to win this matchup, will Riverside-Durham still be able to contain Braswell? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
