By Josh Lewis, Writer
West Washington beat Salem for the second time this season in the opening round of the Holiday Tournament 39-32. West Washington jumped ahead 8-0 after Silas Batt knocked down two free throws. Salem finally got on the board with a basket from Kaiden Romero-Hembree before another basket from Holden Russell made it a 10-2 Senator lead.
Carson Albertson hit back to back triples for the Lions to open the second quarter and pull them closer down 12-8, but Tristan Brown got an old fashioned three point play and hit a jumper to give the Senators more breathing room. Albertson hit another three and Braxton Dean scored to pull the LIons within 20-13 late in the half.
In the third quarter West Washington stretched their lead out 33-23 but the Lions kept plugging away to try and keep it close. Back to back threes in the fourth quarter from Albertson and Romero-Hembree pulled them within three, but they couldn’t get over the hump as the Senators held them off to head to the championship round.
In the second game of the opening night Eastern took a big lead in the first half. After a back and forth first quarter, the Musketeers seized control in the second. Kody Banet and Brody Temple scored to give Eastern the lead 13-12. Back to back threes from Gavin Hurst pushed the advantage to 19-12. Banet got another basket and then a steal that he took for another score to make it a 23-15 lead.
Temple scored early in the second half to push the lead out to double digits, 31-20, but things started to turn in the Braves favor late in the quarter. Turnovers for Eastern started to get the Braves out and running, which led to a few threes opening the floodgates. The Musketeers weren’t able to regain momentum and fell to Borden 60-46.