The McKenzie Tigers and the Kinston Bulldogs will face off at 7:00 p.m. on Friday without much rest having both just played. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (McKenzie has four straight victories, Kinston has three straight defeats), but none of that matters once you're on the court.
McKenzie is headed in fresh off scoring the most points they have all season. They claimed a resounding 80-31 win over Elba. With that victory, McKenzie brought their scoring average up to 51.1 points per game.
| 01/09/25 @ Elba | 25 |
| 12/05/24 vs Opp | 18 |
| 11/23/24 @ Straughn | 15 |
| 01/25/24 @ Opp | 12 |
| 02/01/24 vs Brantley | 10 |
McKenzie's success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Devin Covan led the charge by going 10 of 11 en route to 25 points and five rebounds. The dominant performance gave Covan a new career-high in points. The team also got some help courtesy of Quay Jackson, who almost dropped a double-double on 21 points and nine assists.
McKenzie was working as a unit and finished the game with 20 assists. That's the most assists they've managed all season.
Meanwhile, Kinston came up short against Florala on Thursday, falling 75-50. While losing is never fun, the Bulldogs can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Alabama basketball rankings (they are ranked 414th, while the Wildcats are ranked 138th).
McKenzie's win was their sixth straight on the road dating back to last season, which pushed their record up to 9-3. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 56.8 points per game. As for Kinston, their loss dropped their record down to 4-12.
McKenzie was able to grind out a solid victory over Kinston when the teams last played back in December of 2024, winning 65-52. Does McKenzie have another victory up their sleeve, or will Kinston turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
