West Middle School got their season off to a good start, both boys and girls winning their home openers over Auburntown, the girls downing the visitors 36-19 while the boys held off the opposition 34-27.

The Lady Bulldogs shot out of the gates and never looked back as Madison Martin scored all 10 of her game high points in the first quarter of play, accounting for the lion’s share of West’s 16 points in the opening stanza. Meanwhile, Auburntown was unable to provide an answer, producing just three buckets in the first. However, things go even worse in the second quarter for the visitors as they weren’t able to put the ball through the hoop even once while the Lady Bulldogs managed eight second quarter points with Aly Griffin leading the way with four or her game high six points.

Any hopes of getting back into the contest fell by the wayside as Sarah Wheeler scored Auburntown’s only bucket of the third. She led all scorers on the night with 11 points, accounting for the vast majority of her team’s output. Meanwhile, Ella Hendrixson, Tess Barton and Alyssa Crook each scored two points in the third as the Lady Bulldogs coasted home. Rounding out the scoring for the Lady Bulldogs was Aniston Farler with six, Alyssa Crook with six, Tess Barton with four and Caroline Crook with 2.

The boys’ game proved to be much closer, the key to the Bulldog win coming behind a third-quarter scoring explosion for a 34-27 win.

Both squads traded punch in the first half, the Bulldogs holding a 13-12 advantage at the half thanks to four second quarter points by Carson Donnell who led all first half scorers. The third stanza saw the Bulldogs go on a massive scoring run as they etched 17 points on the scoreboard, a total more than they had scored the whole first half. Leading the way in the third was John Ellis who scored all eight of his game total points in the third. He led his team in scoring along with Alex Antoniak.

Leading 30 to 19 at the end of three, the Bulldogs were able to finish with the win despite being outscored 9-4 in the final frame. Antoniak accounted for all four Bulldog points in the fourth. For Auburntown, Stofan Smith led all scorers in a losing effort with 19 points.