Basketball Game Preview: Portage Warriors vs. McFarland Spartans

The Portage Warriors will face off against the McFarland Spartans at 7:15 p.m. on Friday. The timing isn't great for Portage: they have been struggling with six straight losses at home dating back to last season, while McFarland has snatched up four consecutive wins on the road.

Portage is headed in fresh off scoring the most points they have all season. They were dealt a 111-72 defeat at the hands of Mount Horeb on Tuesday. Despite running the score up even higher than they did in their prior game last Thursday (58), the Warriors still had to take the loss.

Loss or not, Portage got some senior leadership from Ricky Yanez and Aidan Warfield. Yanez went 5 for 9 on his way to 14 points, while Warfield went 7 of 13 en route to 19 points and three steals. As a matter of fact, that's the most points Yanez has scored all season. Another player making a difference was Donovan Navone, who posted nine points.

Even though they lost, Portage was working as a unit and finished the game with 20 assists. That's the most assists they've managed all season.

While McFarland didn't have the best season last year (they finished 9-15), it's starting to look like those struggles are a thing of the past. They came out on top against Reedsburg by a score of 82-70 on Tuesday.

McFarland has also been performing well recently as they've won six of their last eight matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 7-4 record this season. As for Portage, their defeat dropped their record down to 1-9.

Portage came up short against McFarland when the teams last played back in February of 2024, falling 73-66. Can Portage avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.