Statesville and St. Stephens are an even 4-4 against one another since January of 2022, but not for long. The Statesville Greyhounds will face off against the St. Stephens Indians at 7:45 p.m. on Tuesday. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (Statesville has three straight victories, St. Stephens has four straight defeats), but none of that matters once you're on the court.
Statesville is headed in fresh off scoring the most points they have all season. They blew past North Iredell 95-69 on Friday. Given the Greyhounds' advantage in MaxPreps' North Carolina basketball rankings (they are ranked 162nd, while the Raiders are ranked 445th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Caleb Tillman
| 02/07/25 @ North Iredell | 31 |
| 02/04/25 vs West Iredell | 15 |
| 01/31/25 vs Foard | 17 |
Caleb Tillman and Manuel (MJ) Gladden were among the main playmakers for Statesville as the former went 13 for 19 on his way to 31 points and eight rebounds and the latter went 6 of 10 from beyond the arc en route to 30 points. Tillman's evening made it three games in a row in which he has scored at least 15 points. Another player making a difference was Paul Cauthen, who posted seven points along with eight assists and seven steals.
Statesville was working as a unit and finished the game with 26 assists. That's the most assists they've posted since back in January of 2024.
Meanwhile, St. Stephens played a tough matchup on Friday in which they were outscored in every quarter. They had to suffer through a 81-53 loss at the hands of East Lincoln.
Statesville will have to contain Noah Vanbeurden as he made an impact in St. Stephens' last game. He went 9 for 19 to rack up 21 points and five boards. Alan Wilson was another key player, putting up five points and six assists.
St. Stephens' loss dropped their record down to 7-15. As for Statesville, their win bumped their record up to 13-8.
Rebounding is likely to be a big factor in this contest: Statesville has been crashing the boards this season, having averaged 30.5 rebounds per game. However, it's not like St. Stephens struggles in that department as they've been averaging 21.3 boards. With both teams battling to corral missed shots, we'll see if one team can grab an edge.
Everything went Statesville's way against St. Stephens in their previous meeting back in January, as Statesville made off with a 75-51 victory. The rematch might be a little tougher for Statesville since the team won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
