Basketball Game Preview: Muscle Shoals Trojans vs. Hartselle Tigers

Muscle Shoals and Hartselle are an even 5-5 against one another since January of 2021, but not for long. The Muscle Shoals Trojans will face off against the Hartselle Tigers at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (Muscle Shoals has six straight victories, Hartselle has nine straight defeats), but none of that matters once you're on the court.

Muscle Shoals is headed in fresh off scoring the most points they have all season. They blew past Arab, posting a 79-46 win. Given the Trojans' advantage in MaxPreps' Alabama basketball rankings (they are ranked 37th, while the Knights are ranked 164th), the result on Tuesday wasn't entirely unexpected.

Meanwhile, Hartselle was beaten by Austin 65-29 on Tuesday. The match marked the Tigers' lowest-scoring game so far this season.

Muscle Shoals pushed their record up to 12-6 with the victory, which was their sixth straight at home. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 60.8 points per game. As for Hartselle, their loss dropped their record down to 9-15.

Muscle Shoals didn't have too much breathing room in their contest against Hartselle in their previous meeting two weeks ago, but they still walked away with a 65-59 win. The rematch might be a little tougher for Muscle Shoals since the squad won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.