The West Greene Buffaloes will head out on the road to face off against the Gibbs Eagles at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday. The teams are rolling into the game with opposing streaks: West Greene has struggled recently with four losses in a row, while Gibbs will arrive with three straight wins.
Last Tuesday, West Greene suffered a rough 57-37 defeat at the hands of Unicoi County. While losing is never fun, West Greene can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Tennessee basketball rankings (they are ranked 375th, while Unicoi County is ranked 96th).
Even though Gibbs has not done well against Union County recently (they were 2-7 in their previous nine matchups), they didn't let the past get in their way on Friday. Gibbs had just enough and edged Union County out 63-60. Having run the score up that high, both teams might be doing some extra defensive drills very soon.
Kamen Shown continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines, almost dropping a triple-double on 11 points, 16 rebounds, and nine assists. Those 16 rebounds set a new season-high mark for him. Zack Turner was another key contributor, scoring 13 points along with seven assists and five steals.
West Greene's defeat was their fifth straight at home dating back to last season, which bumped their record down to 1-7. That rough patch can't be blamed on the team's offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 54.4 points per game. As for Gibbs, their victory ended a four-game drought at home dating back to last season and bumped them up to 5-6.
West Greene came up short against Gibbs in their previous matchup back in November, falling 70-66. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Turner, who almost dropped a triple-double on 20 points, nine rebounds, and 11 assists. Now that West Greene knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.
