The South Mecklenburg Sabres are still undefeated this season after their matchup against the Independence Patriots on Thursday, but the Independence Patriots came as close as anyone has to beating them. South Mecklenburg skirted past Independence 56-54. That result was just more of the same for these two, as South Mecklenburg also won the last time the pair played back in February of 2021.
Leading South Mecklenburg to victory were Peter Moye and Anderson Skelton. Moye scored 17 points, while Skelton scored 14 points along with 5 rebounds and 3 blocks. That makes it four consecutive games in which Moye has scored at least 25% of South Mecklenburg's points. Myles Howard was another key contributor, scoring 9 points along with 13 rebounds.
When it comes to explaining why Independence lost, one person who can't be blamed is Tosh Alberga. Despite the final result, he dropped a double-double on 24 points and 11 rebounds. Alberga is absolutely dominating the rebound category: he's posted at least eight every time he's taken the court this season. The team also got some help courtesy of Yancy Thomason, who scored 9 points.
Even though they lost, Independence were smashing the offensive glass and finished the game with 11 offensive rebounds. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as South Mecklenburg only pulled down three.
South Mecklenburg's win was their fourth straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 4-0. Those victories were due in large part to their offensive dominance across that stretch, as they averaged 62.8 points per game. As for Independence, their loss dropped their record down to 2-2.
South Mecklenburg will be playing at home against Olympic at 7:30 p.m. on December 8th. Hopefully Olympic focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 24 on Tuesday. As for Independence, they will head out on the road to face off against Porter Ridge at 7:30 p.m. on Monday. Porter Ridge will have to bring their A-game into this one, as they are staring down a pretty big deficit in the MaxPreps North Carolina Rankings (they are ranked 300th, while Independence is ranked 145th).
