Basketball Game Preview: West Prairie Cyclones vs. Knoxville Blue Bullets

West Prairie is 2-7 against Knoxville since January of 2015 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Saturday. Having just played yesterday, the West Prairie Cyclones will jump right back in to play the Knoxville Blue Bullets at 4:30 p.m. West Prairie will be strutting in after a win while Knoxville will be coming in after a defeat.

On Friday, in a tight match that could have gone either way, West Prairie made off with a 53-52 victory over Cuba/Spoon River Valley. The win made it back-to-back victories for the Cyclones.

West Prairie's success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Ryan Clark led the charge by going 7 of 11 on his way to 19 points along with seven boards and five steals. Those 19 points gave Clark a new career-high. The team also got some help courtesy of Braden Coplan, who went 5 of 8 on his way to 14 points.

Meanwhile, Knoxville was not able to break out of their rough patch on Monday as the team picked up their seventh straight loss dating back to last season. They were beaten by Monmouth-Roseville 74-30.

West Prairie is on a roll lately: they've won three of their last four contests, which provided a nice bump to their 5-5 record this season. The wins came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 52.0 points per game. As for Knoxville, their defeat dropped their record down to 0-6.

West Prairie was able to grind out a solid win over Knoxville in their previous meeting back in December of 2023, winning 59-52. Does West Prairie have another victory up their sleeve, or will Knoxville turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.