Basketball Game Preview: Lumberton Pirates vs. Whiteville Wolfpack

The Lumberton Pirates will take on the Whiteville Wolfpack in a tournament on Tuesday. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (Lumberton has three straight wins, Whiteville has four straight losses), but none of that matters once you're on the court.

Lumberton is headed in fresh off scoring the most points they have all season. They put the hurt on Cape Fear with a sharp 64-39 victory on Friday. The match was pretty much decided by the half, when the score had already reached 35-11.

Lumberton can attribute much of their success to Amare Jones, who went 6 for 7 from beyond the arc on his way to 20 points and six assists, and Jaiden Shephard, who dropped a double-double on 12 points and 18 rebounds. Shephard has been hot for a while, having posted eight or more rebounds the last 31 times he's played. The team also got some help courtesy of Lonnie Porter, who almost dropped a double-double on ten boards and nine assists.

They weren't the only one working in the assists department: Lumberton was working as a unit and finished the game with 20 assists. That's the most assists they've posted since back in February.

Meanwhile, Whiteville lost to North Myrtle Beach at home by a 59-42 margin on Wednesday.

Lumberton is on a roll lately: they've won four of their last five contests, which provided a nice bump to their 6-2 record this season. The wins came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 58.6 points per game. As for Whiteville, their defeat ended a three-game streak of wins at home dating back to last season and dropped them to 0-3.

Lumberton was able to grind out a solid win over Whiteville in their previous meeting back in December of 2023, winning 72-63. Does Lumberton have another victory up their sleeve, or will Whiteville turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.