Beavers paddle past Cougars

The Oregon State Beavers defeated the Washington State Cougars, 31-24, in a sixth-grade boys division Amherst Youth Basketball game.

Oregon State's first-half offense came from Joe Brady, Zachary Lee and Ryan Czerwinski.

Ben Clement played tenacious defense, while Joe Unanov set great screens and made crisp passes.

In the second half, Oregon State built an eight-point lead. Matt Macomber found his range, Jonathan Hall had two corner jumpers and their teammates played defense, which prevented Washington State from scoring a lot.

Brady led all scorers with 15 points, followed by Jacob Sieracki (14), Czerwinski, Hall, Lee, Macomber, Davontae Bailey and Blake Rickan (four each), and Ben Clark (two).

Oregon 34, USC 16

Despite having only five players in the opening game of the season, Oregon was able to outlast USC.

Leading the way for the Ducks was Casey Davis, scoring a game-high 14 points and ripping down 12 rebounds.

But this was a complete team effort. Mitchell Fors and Brandon Hill each had eight points. Fred Clabo and Ryan Woods rounded out the Ducks' scoring with two each.

USC battled throughout the game and never gave up. Kyle Topliffe led the Trojans with six points. Robby Zabel had four points. Jason Cohen, James Doyle and Steve Casey each finished with two.

Eighth-grade boys

Raptors 27, Braves 25

Sweet Home High School hosted an opening game for both teams on Saturday, Dec 1.

The Raptors surged to an early lead and played a near-perfect first half. Jim Caputi and Danny Mahr led the way for the Raptors. The Braves battled back, employing a tenacious full-court press. Andy Berg and Andy Poturalski forced a number of turnovers.

The Raptors held off the Braves' final drive at buzzer to get the win. High scorers were Mark Cerza (Braves) and Tyler Piasechi (Raptors).

13-year-old boys

Nets 34, Celtics 33

The Celtics established an early lead and protected it up until the half because of outstanding defense and rebounding of John Castranova and Nick Perna.

Eric Simms, David Berkun and Eric Lyons led all scorers with six points apiece through the half. Ryan Winkler led all Celtics with 10 points for the game.

The Nets had a 12-point outburst early in the third period, led by Ted Langlois (12 total points) and Joe Hill (10 total points).

The Nets' defensive hustle from Peter O'Connor, Oden Fors, Jake Honsberger and Jim Davis caused various turnovers at key moments.