Basketball Game Preview: Union Pines Vikings vs. Southern Alamance Patriots

The Union Pines Vikings and the Southern Alamance Patriots will compete for holiday cheer at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday. One thing working in Union Pines' favor is that they have posted at least 55 points in their last five matchups.

Union Pines is headed into the game after thoroughly thrashing Scotland: they outscored them in every quarter. Union Pines took down Scotland 72-56 on Friday.

Union Pines can attribute much of their success to Kingsley Donaldson, who dropped a double-double on 27 points and 13 boards, and Jaylen Kyle, who went 7 of 17 on his way to 20 points along with eight boards and four steals. With that strong performance, Donaldson is now averaging an impressive 15.9 points per game. The team also got some help courtesy of Jaydon Harrell, who posted five points.

Union Pines smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 15 offensive boards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now pulled down at least eight offensive rebounds in 33 consecutive contests dating back to last season.

Meanwhile, Southern Alamance was not able to break out of their rough patch on Monday as the team picked up their eighth straight defeat dating back to last season. They fell 62-49 to Asheboro. While losing is never fun, the Patriots can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' North Carolina basketball rankings (they are ranked 500th, while the Blue Comets are ranked 91st).

Southern Alamance's loss dropped their record down to 0-6. As for Union Pines, they are on a roll lately: they've won three of their last four matches, which provided a nice bump to their 5-3 record this season.

Union Pines and Southern Alamance were neck-and-neck in their previous matchup back in December of 2018, but Union Pines came up empty-handed after a 70-69 defeat. Can Union Pines avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.