The Chatham Central Bears will head out on the road to face off against the Northwood Chargers at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday. Both teams are coming into the matchup red-hot, with Chatham Central sitting on eight straight wins and Northwood on seven.
Last Thursday, Chatham Central didn't have too much trouble with Western Harnett on the road as they won 53-39. Given Chatham Central's advantage in MaxPreps' North Carolina basketball rankings (they are ranked 179th, while Western Harnett is ranked 618th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Jacob Gilliland was his usual excellent self, dropping a double-double on 20 points and 11 rebounds. He also posted two blocks for the first time this season. Reid Albright was another key contributor, almost dropping a double-double on 12 points and nine rebounds.
Meanwhile, Northwood can now show off 16 landslide victories after their most recent game on Friday. They blew past Cummings 72-18 on the road.
Chatham Central pushed their record up to 20-2 with that win, which was their fifth straight on the road. Those victories were due in large part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 68.6 points per game. As for Northwood, they have been performing incredibly well recently as they've won 11 of their last 12 matches, which provided a nice bump to their 19-3 record this season.
Chatham Central suffered a grim 66-42 defeat to Northwood in their previous matchup back in January. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Northwood's Drake Powell, who scored 20 points along with five rebounds. Now that Chatham Central knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.
