Although the Magnolia boys team and girls team both suffered defeat on Saturday, there was a good turnout and plenty of action for the annual Rotary Baketball Challenge held at Magnolia High School. The scheduled two day event was changed to just Saturday after winter weather and school closings cancelled Friday nights Games Four games were played on on Saturday starting at 11 a.m. when the Blue Eagles girls took to the floor against the Warriors of Trinity. The Morgantown based squad wasted no time in getting the lead and went on to romp over the Blue to the tune of 79-20.

In the second game of the day Wiiliamstown played a tough Morefield squad, but was able to overcome and get the win 53-44 to drop Morefield to 12-4 on the season, while inproving to 5-7. Morefield had a lead of 12-8 after one quarter before the Yellowjacks came alive to get the win.

Game three on the afternoon pitted Morgantown and Parkersburg. Morgantown put on a good display of basketball to hand the Big Reds a loss they would not soon forget.

The final game of the day had Brooke County visiting the hometown Blue Eagles in what would turnout to be the best game of the tournament with Brooke using a fourth quarter rally to pick up the win 56-50.

Magnolia behind eight first quarter points from Damon Shimp jumped out to 14-12 first quarter lead and increased it to 28-25 at the break.

Trevor Williamson hit for seven points in the second quarter including a long three ball while Shimp added five more in the frame to give him a total of 13 at the break. Coming out of the locker room the Blue Eagles went up 37-25 before Brooke took a timeout to regroup. The Bruins then rattled of 14 straight to go up 39-37 and from there it was a back and forth game the rest of the way.

With the Blue still on top by one 42-41 heading into the last eight minutes, points became hard to get as the Bruins tightend up on defense to allow just eight points while scoring 15 of their own to get the six point win.

Cole Sperlazza led the Bruins with a game high 20 points including a pair of 3’s. He was backed in the scoring column by Nick Cipoletti with 14 and Alex Lsingchodo with 13. Magnolia had three in double figures with Williamson leading the way with 18 including a trio of 3’s, while Shimp with 20 and Hayden Pyles added 10 including two from long range in suport.

Magnolia hit 16 field goals in the contest with five coming from beyond the 3-point line. However they were just 3-12 from the free throw line which made the difference. Brooke hit 19 from the floor including a trio of 3’s, but also canned 11-19 from the charity stripe. Brady Kocher dented the scoreboard with five markers as the only other Blue Eagle to score.