Basketball Preview: Keyser Golden Tornado vs. Southern Rams
The Keyser Golden Tornado will be playing at home against the Southern Rams at 7:30 p.m. on Monday. The squads are rolling into the game with opposing streaks: Keyser has struggled recently with three defeats in a row, while the Rams will arrive with three straight victories.
Last Friday, Keyser came up short against the Campers and fell 48-38.
Keyser's loss came about despite a quality game from Patrick Liller, who dropped a double-double on 11 points and ten rebounds. Liller hasn't dropped below eight rebounds for three straight games. The team also got some help courtesy of Evan Ack, who scored four points.
Meanwhile, even though Tucker County scored an imposing 56 points on Saturday, Southern still came out on top. Southern secured a 60-56 W over the Mountain Lions. The victory was all the more spectacular given Southern's disadvantage in MaxPreps's basketball rankings in their respective home states (they are ranked 130th in Maryland, while the Mountain Lions are ranked 20th in West Virginia).
Keyser has been struggling recently as they've lost five of their last six contests, which put a noticeable dent in their 5-10 record this season. As for Southern, they pushed their record up to 10-6 with that victory, which was their third straight at home.
Keyser came up short against the Rams in their previous matchup back in December of 2023, falling 66-61. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Southern's Jared Haskiell, who scored 21 points along with seven rebounds. Now that Keyser knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.
