Zeniths going for gold at home tournament

The Magrath Zeniths will make a push for the gold medal game in their own tournament following the opening day’s action of the Magrath Zenith Classic Christmas Basketball Tournament Friday.

Playing in the third game of the day Friday evening, the Zeniths downed Calgary E.P. Scarlett 76-42 to advance to the semifinal today at 12:30 at Magrath High School.

Paycen Blackmore led the Zeniths with 22 points and John Jones chipped in with 11.

Don Zhang had 10 points for E.P. Scarlett.

The Zeniths will face Calgary Ernest Manning in the semifinal this afternoon after they downed Sherwood Park Bev Facey 46-38 Friday afternoon.

Vinnie Ma had 25 points for Ernest Manning and Jacob Lavoie-Lindsay topped Bev Facey point getters with 19.

On the local front, the Catholic Central Cougars are also on the A-side semifinal, with a 95-91 over the Camrose Trojans.

C.J. Hirsche, Shae Gibb and Nate Moreira each topped the 20-point mark for Catholic Central with 29, 25 and 20 points, respectively.

Will Hughes also hit double digits for the Cougars with 10 points.

Liam Schaffner had 23 points for the Trojans and Jonas Enns and Josh Watson each hit for 20.

The Cougars will face Edmonton Lillian Osborne — who defeated the Raymond Comets with a three-pointer with .9 seconds to go in the late game Friday night for an 89-86 win — in the other A semifinal today at 2:15 p.m.

The gold medal game goes tonight at 7:30 p.m. The bronze medal game is slated for 5:45 p.m.

On the consolation side Bev Facey takes on E.P. Scarlett this morning at 9 a.m.

Camrose will face Raymond at 10:45 a.m.

The consolation final will take place at 4 p.m.