The McDowell Titans will head out on the road to face off against the Avery County Vikings at 8:00 p.m. on Tuesday. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (McDowell has four straight victories, Avery County has four straight defeats), but none of that matters once you're on the field.
Last Thursday, everything went McDowell's way against R-S Central as McDowell made off with a 65-43 win. Given McDowell's advantage in MaxPreps' North Carolina basketball rankings (they are ranked 115th, while R-S Central is ranked 551st), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
McDowell can attribute much of their success to Jaurice Ledbetter, who scored 13 points. The team also got some help courtesy of Rylan Parkins, who scored 9 points.
Meanwhile, Avery County was beaten by Erwin 81-41 on Friday. Avery County has not had much luck with Erwin recently, as the team's come up short the last two times they've met.
McDowell's victory bumped their season record to 4-0 while R-S Central's defeat dropped theirs to 1-5.
McDowell came out on top in a nail-biter against Avery County when the teams last played back in December of 2022, sneaking past 61-58. One of the biggest obstacles trying to stand in the way of that victory was Avery County's Landon Ingham, who dropped a double-double on 19 points and 10 rebounds. Now that he won't be playing on Tuesday, will it be that much easier for McDowell to walk away with another win? There's only one way to find out.
