For the first time this season, North Johnston will have a chance to prove themselves in a conference matchup. They will be home for the holidays to greet the Washington Pam Pack at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Expect the scorekeeper to be kept busy: if their previous games are any indication, these teams will really light up the scoreboard.
As a matter of fact, North Johnston put up the most points they have all season last Tuesday. They came out on top against Princeton by a score of 64-54. The victory was a breath of fresh air for the Panthers as it put an end to their three-game losing streak.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead North Johnston to victory, but perhaps none more so than Kaleb Pone, who shot 40% from the field on his way to 24 points in addition to seven assists and six boards. That makes it three consecutive games in which Pone has scored at least a third of the Panthers' points. The team also got some help courtesy of Aamari Dunston, who went 5-for-10 to rack up 16 points along with six rebounds and five steals.
They weren't the only ones working in the assist department: North Johnston was working as a unit and finished the game with 17 assists. That's the most assists they've posted since back in December of 2024.
Meanwhile, Washington faced Farmville Central in a battle between two of the state's top teams on Thursday. The Pam Pack fell 93-88 to the Jaguars. Despite running the score up even higher than they did in their prior game on Saturday (75), the Pam Pack still had to take the loss.
Having lost for the first time this season, Washington fell to 6-1. As for North Johnston, their win bumped their record up to 3-4.
Everything went North Johnston's way against Washington in their previous matchup back in February of 2017, as North Johnston made off with a 72-47 victory. In that matchup, the Panthers amassed a halftime lead of 39-19, an impressive feat they'll look to repeat on Friday.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps