Basketball Game Preview: Olathe Northwest Ravens vs. Garden City Buffaloes

The Olathe Northwest Ravens will be taking part in a tournament against the Garden City Buffaloes at 4:00 p.m. on Thursday. Given that both suffered a loss in their last games, they both have a little extra motivation heading into this matchup.

Olathe Northwest is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Kansas' top teams: Olathe West, who was ranked 14th at the time (Olathe Northwest was ranked 21st). Olathe Northwest took a hard 70-52 fall against Olathe West on Friday. The Ravens have been going strong on the season, but this is now their second loss in a row.

Despite the defeat, Olathe Northwest got top-tier performance from Gavin Popik, who went 7 for 11 en route to 21 points. That was a full 40.4% of Olathe Northwest's points, marking the fifth time in a row he's posted more than a third of the team's points. The team also got some help courtesy of Cash Christiansen, who put up 12 points.

Meanwhile, Garden City ended up a good deal behind Hays on Friday and lost 69-50. The Buffaloes haven't had much luck with the Indians recently, as the team's come up short the last two times they've met.

Garden City's loss dropped their record down to 3-6. As for Olathe Northwest, their defeat dropped their record down to 6-2.

Olathe Northwest didn't have too much breathing room in their contest against Garden City in their previous matchup back in January of 2015, but they still walked away with a 48-44 victory. Will Olathe Northwest repeat their success, or does Garden City have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.