The Niagara Falls Wolverines waltzed into their contest Friday with two straight wins but they left with three. They escaped with a win against West Charlotte by the margin of a single free throw, 46-45. Given Niagara Falls' advantage in MaxPreps's basketball rankings in their respective home states (they are ranked 47th in New York, while West Charlotte is ranked 150th in North Carolina), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Despite the loss, West Charlotte still got an impressive performance from Brandon Blakeney, who scored 14 points. The matchup was Blakeney's third in a row with at least ten points. The team also got some help courtesy of Damani Day, who scored 13 points.
West Charlotte struggled to get the ball back on offense and finished the game with only four offensive rebounds. That's the fewest offensive rebounds they've managed all season.
Niagara Falls' win bumped their record up to 5-1. As for West Charlotte, this is the second loss in a row for them and nudges their season record down to 5-4.
Niagara Falls will finish 2023 at home by hosting Edmondson-Westside at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday. One thing working in Edmondson-Westside's favor is that they have posted big point totals every time they've taken the court this season. West Charlotte and Huss will round out the year against one another at 3:00 p.m. on Thursday at. Huss has insisted on making their lastthree contests complete nail-biters, turning in a record of 2-1 during that stretch of close contests.
