The Pine Forest Trojans entered their tilt with the Fairmont Golden Tornadoes with four consecutive wins but they'll enter their next game with five. Pine Forest came out on top in a nail-biter against Fairmont on Wednesday and snuck past 56-53. The victory was all the more spectacular given Pine Forest's disadvantage in MaxPreps' North Carolina basketball rankings (they are ranked 321st, while Fairmont is ranked 141st).
Nehemiah Mcdonald was the offensive standout of the game as he dropped a double-double on 23 points and 11 rebounds. The matchup was his third in a row with at least ten points. The team also got some help courtesy of Dwayne Johnson, who scored 12 points.
When it comes to explaining why Fairmont lost, one person who can't be blamed is Naishon Davis. Despite the final result, he scored 20 points along with seven rebounds. Those seven rebounds set a new season-high mark for him. Issac McKellar was another key contributor, scoring 12 points along with six rebounds.
Even though they lost, Fairmont were smashing the offensive glass and finished the game with 20 offensive rebounds. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Pine Forest only pulled down 11 offensive rebounds.
Pine Forest's win was their fifth straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 6-3. Those good results were due in large part to their offensive dominance across that stretch, as they averaged 52.2 points per game. As for Fairmont, their loss dropped their record down to 9-2.
Pine Forest will look to defend their home court on Friday against Terry Sanford at 7:30 p.m. Allowing an average of 58.1 points per game, Terry Sanford has struggled on the defensive end, but that doesn't have to be the case in this contest. As for Fairmont, they will head out on the road to face off against Midway at 7:30 p.m. on January 12th.
