This past week, the Alliance Bulldogs competed in the annual Alliance Holiday Tournament. The boy’s ended the tournament strong with a 1^st place finish and earned their first Holiday Tournament win in three years. The girls advanced in the championship but fell to Mitchell in a close game.

The boys met up with the Class C1 undefeated Bridgeport Bulldogs in the first round of the tournament. Alliance ended the first quarter with a 10-7 lead and kept a three point lead going into halftime.

Alliance took a 27-23 lead at the end of the third quarter, and led until Bridgeport took the lead 37-35 with 3:27 to play. With the game tied at 37 with under a minute remaining, AHS junior Jordan Mills took the last shot but it fell short, leading into overtime.

Two three pointers by Mills and senior Trevor Kamerzell and a free throw by senior Parker Cyza with ten seconds left propelled the Bulldogs to a 44-41 win.

The girls also matched up with Bridgeport in the first round. Alliance started off strong with a 15-8 lead over Bridgeport at the end of the first quarter. The second quarter was  a little bit slower paced but the Lady Bulldogs closed out the first half with a 24-13 lead.

Alliance held Bridgeport scoreless in the third quarter and only allowed one basket the whole second half. Alliance improved to 2-5 after the 38-15 win over Bridgeport.

On Friday January 3, both basketball team played in the Holiday Tournament Championship game.

The girls suffered a crushing defeat to Mitchell for the second time this season. Taking awhile to get on the board, Alliance put a pair of threes and sophomore Madison Reiber put the Bulldogs ahead with a first quarter buzzer beater with a bank-in from the paint.

The Tigers started off strong in the second quarters looking to pull ahead, but senior Rylee Trout put the team on her back and scored five points in a matter of 15 seconds putting Alliance up 21-18 at the half.

With 5:15 remaining in the game, Mitchell tied the game up at 35. The Bulldogs just couldn’t seem to fight back. Mitchell forced Alliance to foul closing out the game with a close 49-42.

The boys move on to 4-4 on the season after their win over the Mitchell Tigers in their championship match up. Alliance busted out of the locker room ready to go as they took a 12-3 lead right away in the game. But Mitchell fought back with a 7-0 run over Alliance. Alliance finished the first quarter on a 7-3 run to lead ending the quarter 19-13.

Mitchell hung around and fought back in the second quarter, but a late rally by Alliance to lead by 11 points at the half at 30-19 was just too much for the Tigers to overcome.

Alliance closed up the third quarter at 45-33. Alliance outscored Mitchell 25-24 in the second half. Both teams only scoring 10 points each in the fourth quarter closing out the game at 55-43.