Basketball Game Preview: North Moore Mustangs vs. Graham Red Devils

North Moore is on a six-game streak of home losses dating back to last season, Graham a five-game streak of away losses, but someone's luck will change on Friday. The North Moore Mustangs will host the Graham Red Devils at 7:30 p.m. North Moore is strutting in with some offensive muscle as they've averaged 50.1 points per game this season.

North Moore is likely headed into the matchup with a focus on the second half, which is when things went downhill against Cummings on Wednesday. North Moore fell 73-65 to Cummings.

Defeat or not, North Moore got some senior leadership from Colby Pennington and Brady Preslar. Pennington dropped a double-double on 15 points and 12 boards, while Preslar went 8 of 11 on his way to 22 points and three steals. Preslar is on a roll when it comes to steals, as he's now grabbed two or more in the last three games he's played. The team also got some help courtesy of Brandon Powell, who went 5 for 12 en route to 12 points.

Even though they lost, North Moore smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with ten offensive boards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now pulled down at least ten offensive rebounds in five consecutive games.

Meanwhile, it's never fun to lose, and it's even less fun to lose 84-28, which was the final score in Graham's tilt against Northwood on Tuesday. While losing is never fun, the Red Devils can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' North Carolina basketball rankings (they are ranked 577th, while the Chargers are ranked 43rd).

North Moore's loss dropped their record down to 4-14. As for Graham, their defeat dropped their record down to 2-16.

North Moore came up short against Graham in their previous meeting back in January, falling 79-70. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Graham's Micah Woods, who went 11 of 15 from beyond the arc on his way to 54 points and seven steals. Now that North Moore knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.