St. Stephens hasn't had much luck against North Lincoln recently, but that could start to change on Tuesday. The St. Stephens Indians are taking a road trip to challenge the North Lincoln Knights at 7:30 p.m. Expect the scorekeeper to be kept busy: if their previous games are any indication, both will really light up the scoreboard.
Last Friday, St. Stephens came up short against Hickory and fell 66-55. While losing is never fun, the Indians can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' North Carolina basketball rankings (they are ranked 370th, while the Red Tornadoes are ranked 109th).
Meanwhile, North Lincoln entered their tilt with North Iredell on Friday with seven consecutive wins but they'll enter their next game with eight. They breezed by the Raiders to the tune of 75-42. The Knights have made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won nine matchups by 22 points or more this season.
St. Stephens better focus on containing Kellen Karr and Ben Heavner as the pair were huge in North Lincoln's win. Karr dropped a double-double on 18 points and ten rebounds, while Heavner went 9 for 13 on his way to 20 points. Karr is on a roll when it comes to boards, as he's now pulled down nine or more in the last 20 games he's played dating back to last season. Another player making a difference was Ty Sanders, who posted ten points and six rebounds.
North Lincoln was working as a unit and finished the game with 26 assists. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now racked up at least 22 assists in three consecutive games.
North Lincoln has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won 11 of their last 12 contests, which provided a nice bump to their 14-5 record this season. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 79.6 points per game. As for St. Stephens, this is the second loss in a row for them and nudges their season record down to 7-13.
St. Stephens came up short against North Lincoln in their previous meeting back in January, falling 74-65. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Karr, who dropped a double-double on 22 points and 18 boards. Now that St. Stephens knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
