Basketball Game Preview: Unaka Rangers vs. West Greene Buffaloes

The Unaka Rangers will take on the West Greene Buffaloes at 6:30 p.m. on Friday. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (Unaka has seven straight wins, West Greene has five straight losses), but none of that matters once you're on the court.

Last Saturday, Unaka got the win against Oakdale by a conclusive 56-33. The Rangers have made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won ten matchups by 23 points or more this season.

Michelle Shields was her usual excellent self, going 12 for 26 on her way to 31 points in addition to six assists and five boards. The game was her tenth in a row with at least ten points. The team also got some help courtesy of Lauren Lund, who went 5 of 9 on her way to 13 points.

They weren't the only one working in the assists department: Unaka was working as a unit and finished the game with 14 assists. The team's really been improving in that area: they've now improved their assist total in three consecutive contests.

Meanwhile, it's never fun to lose, and it's even less fun to lose 68-26, which was the final score in West Greene's tilt against Knoxville Catholic on Saturday. While losing is never fun, the Buffaloes can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Tennessee basketball rankings (they are ranked 242nd, while the Fighting Irish are ranked 45th).

Unaka has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won nine of their last ten matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 12-3 record this season. They've dominated over that stretch too, winning by an average of 26.2 points. As for West Greene, they now have a losing record at 6-7.

Unaka suffered a grim 50-30 defeat to West Greene in their previous meeting back in December of 2023. Will Unaka have more luck at home instead of on the road? Come back here after the game to get an analysis of the match and other basketball content.