Jason Jackson steps to the line Jan. 22 against Crane. The Panthers won, 76-48, to up their record to 14-2. The Eagle/Jill Mallory

PRAIRIE CITY – Coming off weekend victories over Burnt River and Crane, the Prairie City High School boys basketball team remained firmly entrenched in second place in the TriCo League with a 9-2 record.

On Friday, the Panthers traveled to Unity and defeated the Bulls 69-55, before returning home on Saturday to dump the Mustangs 76-48.

Against Burnt River, the Panthers opened the game with 29 points in the first quarter to build a comfortable 29-10 lead.

“We got off to a good start with my upper rotation of players and then I rotated 10 players throughout the remainder of the game,” Prairie City coach Denis Fast said. “I was able to get some extended playing time with the second team.”

Prairie City (14-2 overall) added 11 points in the second quarter to hold a 40-19 halftime advantage.

Brandon Lovell scored 18 points and Greg Waggoner added 11 to lead the Prairie City scoring attack.

Clayton Kezerle scored a game-high 23 points and Richie Kezerle had 14 for Burnt River.

On Saturday, Prairie City got double-double efforts from Evan Fast and Waggoner to cruise past Crane.

Fast scored a game-high 23 points and pulled down 15 rebounds, and Waggoner had 18 points and 10 assists.

“Greg (Waggoner) really controlled the game and Gary Moulton made his first start since he came back from a knee injury,” coach Fast said. “The knee is starting to come around and he scored 14 points.”

Prairie City is on the road this weekend, taking on Harper and Huntington.

“We play Harper first and then sleep over in the gym before playing an early game against Huntington,” Fast said. “That makes things kind of difficult. Huntington has three new players on the team since the last time we played them and they are supposed to be pretty good. We need to go down there and take care of business.”