North Gaston is 1-9 against Crest since January of 2020 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Friday. The North Gaston Wildcats will head out on the road to face off against the Crest Chargers at 7:30 p.m. The squads are rolling into the game with opposing streaks: North Gaston has struggled recently with four defeats in a row, while Crest will arrive with ten straight victories.
North Gaston pushed their score all the way to 57 on Tuesday, but even that wasn't enough to win. They ended up on the wrong side of a rough 80-57 walloping at the hands of Ashbrook. While losing is never fun, North Gaston can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' North Carolina basketball rankings (they are ranked 523rd, while Ashbrook is ranked 36th).
Despite the loss, North Gaston had strong showings from Markell Carothers, who scored 27 points, and Jurnee Lattimore, who scored 11 points along with four steals. Lattimore is absolutely dominating the steal category: he's posted at least two every time he's taken the court this season. Another player making a difference was Max Huggins, who scored eight points.
Meanwhile, even though South Point scored an imposing 57 points on Tuesday, Crest still came out on top. Crest snuck past South Point with a 63-57 win.
Crest's win was a true team effort, with many players turning in solid performances. Perhaps the best among them was Jabari Thurman, who scored 16 points. That's the first time this season that Thurman scored 15 or more points. D'various Surratt was another key contributor, scoring 14 points.
North Gaston's defeat was their sixth straight on the road, which bumped their record down to 3-12. As for Crest, their victory bumped their record up to 10-1.
North Gaston strolled past Crest in their previous meeting back in February of 2023 by a score of 85-66. One of the biggest obstacles trying to stand in the way of that victory was Crest's Amarieon Goodlett, who scored 22 points along with nine rebounds and six steals. Now that he won't be playing on Friday, will it be that much easier for North Gaston to walk away with another win? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
