The McCormick Chiefs will challenge the Abbeville Panthers at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday. Both are sauntering into the matchup backed by comfortable wins in their prior games.
McCormick will head into Friday's game hoping to keep the good times rolling: they had to skate by with only a two-point margin when they last took the court, which might have inspired the 53-point drubbing they dealt Whitmire on Friday. McCormick took their matchup with ease, bagging an 80-27 victory over Whitmire. The contest was pretty much decided by the half, when the score had already reached 55-12.
Meanwhile, Abbeville had already won five in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 43.8 points) and they went ahead and made it six on Friday. They claimed a resounding 80-52 win over the Hornets. Given the Panthers' advantage in MaxPreps' South Carolina basketball rankings (they are ranked 105th, while the Hornets are ranked 243rd), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Abbeville's win came from a few key players McCormick will need to keep an eye on. One of the most notable was Jaylen Baylor, who dropped a double-double on 14 points and 16 rebounds. With that strong performance, he is now averaging an impressive 8.2 boards per game. Another player making a difference was Darius Riley, who went 6 for 8 on his way to 14 points and seven assists.
Abbeville smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 20 offensive boards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now pulled down at least 12 offensive rebounds in six consecutive games.
McCormick is on a roll lately: they've won six of their last eight matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 10-7 record this season. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 62.4 points per game. As for Abbeville, they pushed their record up to 8-2 with the victory, which was their third straight on the road.
McCormick was able to grind out a solid win over Abbeville in their previous matchup back in January of 2024, winning 66-57. The rematch might be a little tougher for McCormick since the team won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
