Class B Western Divisional Day 1 In The Books

First day of the Class B Western Divisional Tournament is in the books and it was a full day of action for both the girls and boys brackets with the Loyola Rams and Breakers capitalizing on their matches.

For the Loyola Rams it would be an easy game with the bench seeing quality minutes from the opening quarter. The Rams rolled out to an early lead despite having trouble dropping the ball through the hoop. In the opening quarter the Loyola boys couldn’t get the easy bucket to go down, but quickly found their feet and ran away from the Trojans leading 16-4 at the end of one.

With a hefty lead from the opening period Coach Stack began inserting his bench to help them gain postseason experience. Led by Charles Burns the none starters began to pull away from Troy, pushing the Rams out to a 39-11 lead at the half. Loyola picked up an additional 13 points off the bench in the first two quarters, but the bench would not be done on the game.

Loyola continued to play stiff defense in the second half causing the Trojans to turn the ball over on repeated exchanges. The starters kicked things off in the opening minutes of the third, but the bench began to filter in and they picked up where left off in the first half. The Rams bench had a hand in the win, contributing a total of 35 points in Loyola’s 67-19 victory over Troy.

The Rams will take the Florence Falcons Friday at 5:40 in the boys semi final game.

The night cap game featured the Breakers of Loyola and the Lady Trojans of Troy with Loyola picking up a 49-29 victory. It was a tough road to go for both teams as neither teams earned a bucket until the 4:15 left in the first quarter when Tessa Burke dropped a three. The basket became square for the two teams as they struggled to score and at the end of one quarter the Lady Trojans led 8-6. In the second quarter the Breakers shoock the cob webs lose and took off out scoring Troy 19-6 to go up 25-14 at the break.

Coach Walker of the Breakers held the girls on the court at the half time rather going into the locker room and revived his team. Coming out in the third quarter with the ball, Loyola laid down the press and kept the Lady Trojans off the board until 3:18 left in the third. As with the boys Coach Walker filtered in his bench in the second half and the girls responded well by tightening down their defense and finding the bottom of the bucket to earn the win.

The Breakers will face the Bigfork Valkyries Friday night in the night cap game at 9:00 pm for a chance to play in the championship game Saturday night and a trip to state.