The Lanier Poets will head out on the road to face off against the Smiths Station Panthers at 5:30 p.m. on Friday. Lanier is coming into the contest on a six-game losing streak.
On Wednesday, Lanier was beaten by the Thunderbirds 56-19. While losing is never fun, Lanier can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Alabama basketball rankings (they are ranked 363rd, while the Thunderbirds are ranked 15th).
Meanwhile, Smiths Station stacked an eighth blowout win onto their ever-increasing hoard on Tuesday. Everything went their way against Booker T. Washington as Smiths Station made off with a 57-35 victory. Smiths Station pushed the score to 48-23 by the end of the third, a deficit the Golden Eagles cut but never quite recovered from.
Lanier's loss dropped their record down to 2-17. As for Smiths Station, their win bumped their record up to 14-4.
Lanier took a serious blow against the Panthers when the teams last played back in December of 2023, falling 48-11. The match was all but decided by halftime, at which point Lanier was down 29-8.
