Laney is 2-8 against New Hanover since February of 2019 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Friday. The Laney Buccaneers will head out on the road to challenge the New Hanover Wildcats at 8:00 p.m. Each of these teams will be fighting to keep a win streak alive as Laney comes in on four and New Hanover on 21.
Laney can now show off seven landslide victories after their most recent contest on Tuesday. They claimed a resounding 71-33 win over South Brunswick at home. Laney pushed the score to 56-24 by the end of the third, a deficit South Brunswick had no chance of recovering from.
Laney's win was the result of several impressive offensive performances. One of the most notable came from Joshua Helms, who scored 20 points along with six rebounds and two steals. Helms hasn't dropped below two steals for three straight games. Hezron Driver was another key contributor, scoring 14 points along with three steals.
North Brunswick typically has all the answers at home, but on Tuesday New Hanover proved too difficult a challenge. They walked away with a 72-64 victory over the Scorpions. Given New Hanover's advantage in MaxPreps' North Carolina basketball rankings (they are ranked sixth, while North Brunswick is ranked 91st), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
The match pitted two dominant guards against one another in Rodmik Allen and Malakhi Daniels. Allen had a great game and scored 19 points along with two steals. Meanwhile, Daniels was balling out in the loss, scoring 23 points along with six rebounds.
Laney's win bumped their record up to 18-2. As for New Hanover, their win was their 11th straight on the road dating back to last season, which pushed their record up to 21-0.
Some high-performance offense is likely on the agenda as both teams are some of the highest scoring teams in the league. Laney hasn't had any problem running up the score this season, having averaged 61.3 points per game. However, it's not like New Hanover struggles in that department as they've been averaging 67.2 points per game. With both teams so easily able to put up points, the only question left is who can run the score up higher.
Laney was dealt a bruising 82-52 defeat at the hands of New Hanover in their previous matchup back in January. Can Laney avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
