The Bucs boy’s basketball team racked up another conference win Friday, Jan. 18 as they defeated the struggling St. James Saints 63-28. The Saints came into the contest having won just once in 11 games while the Bucs came into the game with a record of 8-2 overall and 3-0 in the conference.

The Bucs, playing on their home floor, never trailed as Garrett Anderson scored the first two points with a jump hook and Logan Becker followed with a three to get the Bucs off to a 5-0 start.

With the Bucs up 14-4, Becker and Jon Trasamar executed a two-on-one fast break with Trasamar connecting for the bucket and getting fouled in the process. Trasamar drained the free throw to complete the traditional three-point play and put the home team up 17-4. Starting the second half with a 27-13 lead, the Bucs extended the lead to 22 after an 8-0 run. Nate Carr made two free throws with 9:33 remaining that put the host team up by a 31 point margin at 49-18. St. James was largely ineffective on offense as their leading scorer, Austin Pinke, was held to only two points with Logan Becker handling the bulk of the defensive assignment.

Meanwhile the Bucs continued to increase their lead, building it to as much as 37 points before finishing with the 35 point victory.

“We met our goal tonight in committing only 10 turnovers,” said Coach Gary Holmseth, “we were effective on the offensive boards and we had good shot selection.”

Indeed, the Bucs were highly effective at working the ball inside as Anderson and Nick Lee scored 17 and 16 points respectively, most coming from short range shots. Becker added 11 and Nate Carr eight points to account for 52 of the Bucs 63 points.

Leading the Saints in scoring with seven points was Peter Johnson. James Piper contributed six points for the Saints as they fell to 1-3 in conference action.

B squad St. James defeats BEA 47-40

The Bucs could not hold on to their 21-19 half time lead as the Saints came back to win 47-40. The Bucs held a 38-32 lead before being outscored 15-2 to fall to the Saints.

Blake Racek led the Bucs with 14 points, Corey Liebl had nine and Charile Garlick scored eight points.