Basketball Game Preview: West Greene Buffaloes vs. Unaka Rangers

The West Greene Buffaloes will take on the Unaka Rangers at 6:30 p.m. on Friday. The squads are rolling into the game with opposing streaks: West Greene has struggled recently with five losses in a row, while Unaka will arrive with seven straight victories.

West Greene saw some tournament action on Saturday. They were outmatched by Knoxville Catholic and fell 68-26. While losing is never fun, the Buffaloes can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Tennessee basketball rankings (they are ranked 242nd, while the Fighting Irish are ranked 45th).

Meanwhile, Unaka made easy work of Oakdale on Saturday and carried off a 56-33 win. The Rangers have made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won ten games by 23 points or more this season.

West Greene better keep an eye on Michelle Shields. She was instrumental in Unaka's win, going 12 of 26 en route to 31 points along with six assists and five boards. Shields' morning made it ten games in a row in which she has scored at least ten points. The team also got some help courtesy of Lauren Lund, who went 5 of 9 on her way to 13 points.

Unaka was working as a unit and finished the game with 14 assists. The team's really been improving in that area: they've now improved their assist total in three consecutive matches.

Unaka has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won nine of their last ten contests, which provided a nice bump to their 12-3 record this season. They've dominated over that stretch too, winning by an average of 26.2 points. As for West Greene, they now have a losing record at 6-7.

Everything went West Greene's way against Unaka in their previous meeting back in December of 2023, as West Greene made off with a 50-30 victory. The rematch might be a little tougher for West Greene since the team won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.