On the heels of their historic one-loss season last year, the DeKalb Middle School Saints boys’ basketball team are at it again, marching out of the gates with a 3-0 start, their latest outing a 50-19 crushing of Van Buren County.

The Saints’ season ended last year in the first round of the state tournament after they amassed a 19-1 regular season mark, their only blemish being a buzzer beater thrown up at the end of the Sparta game. Despite losing some key players to the high school this season, the Saints have simple reloaded, evidenced by their strong start.

Leading the way in scoring thus far is one of last year’s key players, eighth grader Connor Close who accounted of his squad’s 50 in the Saints’ home opener this past week. They were next to play host to Baxter this Tuesday and then go on the road Thursday to play Avery Trace.

The Saints led cover to cover over Van Buren, jumping out to a 13-3 lead in the first with Close getting five and Jacob Hendrix adding four. Eli Scoggins was the only Eagle to do any damage in the game for Van Buren as he led his squad with 11 on the night.

The Saints added to their lead and were up 20-6 by half. The second was more of the same as DeKalb outscored Van Buren 16-9 in the third with Owen Snipes getting five of his seven points in the stanza. The game was topped off by the Saint bench which outscored Van Buren 14-4 with Dallas Kirby leading the way with five.

The win came after a much closer call as the Saints escaped Hillham with a 43-40 win the game before. Hillham’s Bradey Coffee was not strong enough to do it alone as he led his squad with 19. He was countered by Connor Close who had 16 and Jacob Hendrix with 10. The Saints actually had to come from behind as they trained 13-10 after one but were able to erase the deficit with a strong second quarter showing that included Devin Fish putting up five points in the stanza.

The close call at Hillham came after a road win at Rickman where the Saints claimed a 45-37 victory on the heels of a 14-2 blowout first quarter where Close and Jordan Parker had six apiece in the opening period alone. The Saints would have to dig their heels in; however, as a lackadaisical third period saw them get outscored 14-3, making it a game. But, their third quarter swoon was followed by a fourth quarter run where the Saints had 20 with Devin Fish leading the way with seven of those points.