LONG CREEK The Long Creek-Ukiah boys varsity had a strong showing last Saturday at home in Long Creek, with a 64-27 rout of the Burnt River Bulls.

The Mountaineer-Cougar junior varsity got in the starting action, helping out the varsity.

They pretty much ran the tempo, said Daniel Johnson, co-coach with Thomas Conner.

The boys suffered a close loss to Griswold in Helix the previous day, falling 55-57.

They came out really strong, Johnson said of his team. They jumped to a pretty good lead then slacked off on their intensity, allowing Griswold to come back and tie score pretty close to the half.

Long Creek-Ukiah lost two players for the second half, including Milan Ciba who took a basketball to the face, followed by an elbow to the face, and point guard Arin Surangkonikorn who hit the floor hard, bruising his knee.

After back-and-forth scoring through the second half, Long Creek-Ukiah had trouble making the needed stops, allowing the Grizzlies to pull ahead in the end.

The injuries hurt us a bit, Johnson said. Overall, the boys played very well and everyone is working together as team.

Games played the week previous included a 45-47 loss to Joseph on Dec. 6 and 64-31 win on Dec. 7 over Burnt River in Unity.

The Long Creek-Ukiah girls also are back on the courts and improving their game, Johnson said.

They fell 32-61 to the Bulls at home in a tough loss, but the girls are making steady gains offensively, he said.

Theyve gone from earning 5 points in their first game at Joseph (5-68), to 15 points in their first of two matchups with the Bulls (15-42) and 20 against Griswold (20-64).

The girls are doing very well, Johnson said. From first day of practice, theyve been improving with each game and they have fun together and play well with each other thats been fun to see.