The WACO Warrior boys and girls basketball teams step into the Area Game of the Week spotlight tonight when they welcome the Louisa-Muscatine Falcons to Wayland in a doubleheader you can hear on KCII.

The Warrior girls are 5-7 overall, 3-7 in the North division of the Southeast Iowa Superconference after a loss on the road Tuesday to Pekin 58-40. WACO was blitzed early in the defeat by a 12-2 first period run by the Panthers. This season, WACO scores 46 points per game and gives up 43, shooting 32% from the field, 26% from deep and 38% at the foul line. The Warriors boast one of the north’s best overall individual talents in junior Brenna Graber. She scores 12 points a night, pulls down over four rebounds, and pokes out over three steals.

Louisa-Muscatine enters 11-3 overall, 9-2 in league play winners of four straight. The latest was a 52-48 victory over Wapello Tuesday. This year, the Falcons score 54 points per game and give up 40, shooting 33% from the field, 21% from three and 44% at the line. L&M earns extra offensive possessions off of their 20 steals per game, the third-best mark in the state. Individually, Grace and Hannah Kissell lead the team in both points and steals per game.

WACO head coach Mitchell Drey breaks down the matchup with the Falcons.

“ I think the biggest thing for us is playing confident,” Drey said. “L&M’s very good. They have a very good press and they’re going to be a team that you have to be ready for from the start. I think our girls know it’s coming. Now we’ve just got to go out and show it.”

The series between the Warriors and Falcons is tied 11 games apiece dating back to 2007 in the Varsity Bound era.

The WACO boys are at .500 on the year at 6-6 overall after a loss Tuesday to Pekin 44-35. The Warriors were outscored in all but the second period. On the year, WACO scores 54 points per game and gives up 52, shooting 42% from the floor, 34% from downtown and 66% at the stripe, with 27 boards, 13 assists, eight steals, one block, and 13 giveaways a game. Junior Holden Hughes is the individual scoring and rebounding leader with 15 points and eight boards per game.

The Falcon boys own only two wins on the season, one in conference play. Their latest action was a Tuesday loss at Wapello 58-47. They led at the half, but were outscored by 14 in the final two periods. Entering tonight, the Falcons score 50 points per game and give up 62, shooting 39% from the field, 24% from three and 39% at the line. The team is the strongest in the low post, owning nearly 38 rebounds and denying seven shots per outing, much of that from individual leader Oscar Cline. The junior leads the Superconference North in points, rebounds and blocks per game.

WACO head coach Chayse Roth tells KCII Sports what he’s looking for from his team in preparation for their second matchup of the season with the Falcons.

“ I think we’ve got to be confident going into the game. [When] we played them the first time, we didn’t play our best game and we still came out with a nine point win. I think right now our team is kind of going through some adversity, and I think we have to come out and just be confident and know that we’re good basketball players and trust ourselves,” Roth said.

WACO has controlled the series in the Varsity Bound era 18-5 dating back to 2008, winners of seven straight.

You can hear all of the action live tonight on FM 106.1, the KCII1 App, and online at KCIIRadio.com, beginning with the Area Game of the Week girls pregame show at 5:30, tip at 6 with the boys to follow from WACO High School.