Basketball Game Preview: R.J. Reynolds Demons vs. Watauga Pioneers

The R.J. Reynolds Demons and the Watauga Pioneers will face off at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday without much rest having both just played.

R.J. Reynolds is coming in off a wild two-game stretch: after soaring to 58 points last Thursday, they were much more limited against Davie on Friday. They were beaten by the War Eagles 65-21. The match marked the Demons' lowest-scoring contest so far this season.

Meanwhile, Watauga entered their tilt with Hibriten on Friday with three consecutive wins but they'll enter their next game with four. They took down the Panthers 59-44. Given the Pioneers' advantage in MaxPreps' North Carolina basketball rankings (they are ranked 25th, while the Panthers are ranked 92nd), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Watauga has also been performing incredibly well recently as they've won eight of their last nine games, which provided a nice bump to their 9-4 record this season. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 61.8 points per game. As for R.J. Reynolds, their loss dropped their record down to 4-8.

R.J. Reynolds took a serious blow against Watauga when the teams last played back in December of 2022, falling 67-37. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Watauga's Kate Sears, who went 8 for 18 on her way to 19 points and four steals. Now that R.J. Reynolds knows the damage she can cause, will they be able to stop her this time? There's only one way to find out.