New Hanover is on a ten-game streak of home wins, while Hoggard is on a 16-game streak of away wins (dating back to last season): one of those streaks is about to end. The New Hanover Wildcats will take on the Hoggard Vikings at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday. New Hanover will have to bring their A-game into this one, as they are staring down a pretty big deficit in the MaxPreps North Carolina Rankings (they are ranked 62nd, while Hoggard is ranked 15th).
On Tuesday, it was a hard-fought contest, but New Hanover had to settle for a 56-53 loss against West Brunswick.
Despite the defeat, New Hanover saw an underclassman step up: Brianna Stanley scored 29 points. As a matter of fact, that's the most points Stanley has scored all season. The team also got some help courtesy of Maleah Moses Braxton, who scored six points along with nine rebounds.
Meanwhile, Hoggard didn't have too much breathing room in their contest against Ashley on Friday, but they still walked away with a 45-41 victory.
Hoggard got their victory on the backs of several key players, but it was Jakicey Gardner out in front who scored 13 points along with two steals. Tristan Shivers was another key contributor, scoring ten points along with seven assists and five steals.
New Hanover's defeat ended a three-game streak of away wins and brought them to 17-5. As for Hoggard, their win bumped their record up to 21-1.
This contest is one where the number of possessions is likely to be a big factor: New Hanover have been smashing the glass this season, having averaged 33.8 rebounds per game. However, it's not like Hoggard struggles in that department as they've been averaging 30.9 rebounds per game. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
New Hanover suffered a grim 60-39 defeat to Hoggard when the teams last played back in January. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Hoggard's Sarah Elgart, who scored 23 points along with eight rebounds and three blocks. Now that New Hanover knows the damage she can cause, will they be able to stop her this time? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
