Southside is 0-10 against the Mariners since December of 2015 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Tuesday. The Southside Seahawks will head out on the road to face off against the East Carteret Mariners at 6:00 p.m. Both teams come into the match bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
In what's become a running theme this season, Southside gave their fans yet another huge victory on Friday. Everything went their way against Lejeune as Southside made off with a 42-22 win. The match was pretty much decided by the half, when the score had already reached 28-6.
Southside can attribute much of their success to Tamya Smith, who scored 14 points along with seven rebounds and five assists, and I'Kiriyah Minor, who scored 16 points along with seven steals and five rebounds. Smith is on a roll when it comes to steals, as she's now grabbed two or more in the last six games she's played. Indiah Moore was another key contributor, scoring six points along with two steals.
Meanwhile, East Carteret had already won six in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 19.8 points), and they went ahead and made it seven on Tuesday. They took down Jones 68-52. Given East Carteret's advantage in MaxPreps' North Carolina basketball rankings (they are ranked 105th, while the Trojans are ranked 528th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Tanzania Locklear continued her habit of posting crazy stat lines, scoring 26 points along with eight rebounds and six assists. Another player making a difference was Kenliana Dixon, who scored 13 points along with eight assists and six steals.
Southside's record now sits at 13-8. As for East Carteret, their victory was their third straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 18-2.
This contest is one where the number of possessions is likely to be a big factor: Southside have been smashing the glass this season, having averaged 26 rebounds per game. However, it's not like East Carteret struggles in that department as they've been averaging 21.2 rebounds per game. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
Southside was taken down by the Mariners 66-24 in their previous meeting back in January. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Locklear, who scored 21 points along with five rebounds and two steals. Now that Southside knows the damage she can cause, will they be able to stop her this time? There's only one way to find out.
