Preston Headlines as the Top Performers of the Weekend

<p>The divisional conference games are starting to come to a close in the Idaho Falls Metro. Teams are starting to find form before heading into the postseason. Let’s take a look at some of the notable team and player performances of the weekend. </p> <p><strong>Preston wins Sixth Consecutive District Crown</strong></p> <p>It was business as usual for Preston who clinched their sixth-straight district title Friday night with a 51-44 win at Century. A team that lost four starters from a year ago was able to embrace the challenge. </p> <p>Preston held Century to two points in the second quarter, stretched the lead out to 15 points, and led by double digits for most of the second half. Any chance of a Century comeback was short-circuited by their awful free-throw shooting, where they shot 1 of 10 in the second half.</p> <p>Braden Hess was a dominant force in the middle for Preston leading all scorers with 17. His low-post game was unmatched on Friday night and he took full-advantage. </p> <p><strong>Bonneville Stuns Blackfoot</strong></p> <p>The Broncos started slow again and it cost them on Friday as they fell 73-67 to Bonneville.</p> <p>The team is settling for bad-shot selection and their shooting was unable to bail them out and lead to Bonneville outscoring them 27-10 in the second quarter. McDonald led the way for Bonneville and led all scorers with 23. </p> <p>In the second half, they decided to get more to the rim but it was too big of a deficit to dig themselves out of and came up short. </p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="969603" first="Carter" last="Layton"] netted 19 and [player_tooltip player_id="970441" first="Ja’Vonte" last="King"] scored 15 in Blackfoot’s loss. With just one conference game remaining, the Broncos hopes of earning a bye in the 4A District 6 Tournament are dashed.</p> <p><strong>Shurtliff leads West Side to Bounce-Back victory</strong></p> <p> A big third quarter propelled the Pirates to a 68-41 victory over Rich County. The team played with a different intensity after falling short to Bear Lake earlier in the week in what was indeed an upset. </p> <p>23 points in the third quarter was the major difference and the offense was efficient in their scoring. Shurtliff was a key component of their third quarter barrage showcasing his playmaking ability as a scorer and a facilitator. </p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="969492" first="Bryler" last="Shurtliff"] scored a game-high 20 and Ryan Lemmon netted a dozen in West Side’s victory.</p> <p><strong>Games to Watch</strong></p> <p><em><strong>February 9th</strong></em></p> <p>Century vs Burley</p> <p><em><strong>February 10th</strong></em></p> <p>Blackfoot vs Pocatello</p> <p>Rigby vs Thunder Ridge</p>