Hillside is 9-1 against Chapel Hill since December of 2017, and they'll have a chance to extend that success on Tuesday. The Hillside Hornets will head out on the road to square off against the Chapel Hill Tigers at 5:30 p.m. Both teams are coming into the matchup red-hot, with Hillside sitting on four straight wins and Chapel Hill on ten.
Winning is just a little bit easier when you work as a team to rack up 11 more assists than your opponent, a fact Hillside proved on Friday. They strolled past East Chapel Hill with points to spare, taking the game 67-52. Given Hillside's advantage in MaxPreps' North Carolina basketball rankings (they are ranked 84th, while East Chapel Hill is ranked 302nd), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Hillside relied on the efforts of Sa?nya Horton, who scored 19 points along with three steals, and Samiyah Barker, who scored 23 points along with seven rebounds and seven steals. As a matter of fact, that's the most points Horton has scored all season. Madison Malone was another key contributor, scoring six points along with 11 rebounds and three steals.
In what's become a running theme this season, Chapel Hill gave their fans yet another huge win on Friday. They simply couldn't be stopped as they easily beat Northern Durham 81-13 on the road. Chapel Hill pushed the score to 73-11 by the end of the third, a deficit Northern Durham had no chance of recovering from.
Chapel Hill's success was spearheaded by the efforts of Scarlett Gilner, who scored 14 points along with six assists and six steals, and Laynie Smith, who scored 18 points along with six assists and six rebounds. Gilner has been hot recently, having posted three or more steals the last five times she's played. Another player making a difference was Jadzia Burnette, who scored ten points along with six assists and two steals.
Hillside is on a roll lately: they've won 11 of their last 12 matches, which provided a nice bump to their 16-6 record this season. As for Chapel Hill, they pushed their record up to 18-4 with that win, which was their eighth straight on the road.
Tuesday's match is shaping up to be a masterclass in shooting: Hillside have been dynamite from deep this season, having made 38.8% of their threes per game. However, it's not like Chapel Hill struggles in that department as they've made 43.8% of their threes this season. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
Hillside came up short against Chapel Hill in their previous matchup back in January, falling 51-42. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Smith, who dropped a triple-double on 26 points, 12 rebounds, and 11 blocks. Now that Hillside knows the damage she can cause, will they be able to stop her this time? There's only one way to find out.
