Basketball Game Preview: Smoky Mountain Mustangs vs. Franklin Panthers

Smoky Mountain is 2-8 against Franklin since February of 2021 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Tuesday. The Smoky Mountain Mustangs will venture away from home to challenge the Franklin Panthers at 6:30 p.m.

Smoky Mountain is headed into the contest out to prove that what happened against West Henderson on Tuesday (when they were outscored in every quarter) was just a minor bump in the road. Smoky Mountain was outmatched by West Henderson and fell 67-40. The Mustangs were in a tough position after the first half, with the score already sitting at 39-16.

Despite the loss, Smoky Mountain had strong showings from Kailey Broom, who went 6 of 12 on her way to 16 points, and Braelyn Mulligan, who went 5 for 10 en route to 14 points. The dominant performance gave Broom a new career-high in points.

Meanwhile, you can't lose the game if you win every quarter, and that was precisely Franklin's strategy against North Henderson on Friday. Given that consistent dominance, it should come as no surprise that Franklin blew North Henderson out of the water with a 66-20 final score. Given the Panthers' advantage in MaxPreps' North Carolina basketball rankings (they are ranked 238th, while the Knights are ranked 499th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Franklin has also been performing well recently as they've won three of their last four matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 11-9 record this season. The wins came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 53.0 points per game. As for Smoky Mountain, their defeat ended a three-game streak of wins at home and dropped them to 6-14.

Smoky Mountain ended up a good deal behind Franklin in their previous matchup back in January, losing 56-40. Can Smoky Mountain avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.