Westlake boys basketball cruises to win over Saugus at St. Francis Holiday Hoopfest

LA CAÑADA FLINTRIDGE — Westlake boys basketball defeated Saugus 68-51 in the first round of the St. Francis Holiday Hoopfest tournament. Westlake jumped out to a 19-6 lead in the first quarter and had a 55% field goal percentage in the first half.

Westlake (10-5) will take on Milken in the second round of the tournament Saturday night at 7:30.

“It feels really good to get the win, Saugus is a well-coached, tough team,” Westlake coach Curtis Allen said. “I thought our guys played hard and we were able to slow Saugus down and make them play in the half-court.”

Westlake did a nice job spreading the ball around in the game, with five players scoring over nine points or more. The team also had 21 assists on 30 made field goals. They also out-rebounded Saugus (8-5), 32-24.

Ethan Karkoon had 18 points and 8 rebounds for Westlake in only 21 minutes. Westlake’s Axel Ostegard had 13 points and eight rebounds, with 11 of his points coming in the first half.

“It was just a great team effort, everyone all around was just playing amazing,” Ostegard said. “Our goal today was just to dominate the paint and Ethan was unstoppable in there.”

The only Saugus lead of the game came early in the first quarter, but they were able to cut the deficit as little as four before halftime. Brayden Harmon had 21 points and 10 rebounds for Saugus.

Zachary Kalinski had 12 points and four rebounds for Westlake. Daniel Malouf had nine points with six assists for Westlake. With the win, Westlake has won three straight games by double digits.

“I feel really good about how the scoring is being spread around,” Allen said. “Saugus is really tough on the glass and I thought we did a really good job rebounding against them.”

Saugus plays Alemany on Saturday at 1:30.

There were five other games on Friday at the St. Francis Holiday Hoopfest tournament involving Daily News area teams.

St. Francis (11-2) 68, Burroughs (4-8) 23: Luke Paulus had 23 points, six rebounds, four assists and four steals, helping lead St. Francis to victory in the opening game. St. Francis’ Cole Ragsdale had 10 points and four steals and Lennon Van Wagner had six points and four rebounds for St. Francis. St. Francis was without its leading scorer and 7-foot-3 center Cherif Millogo for the game. They will take on Pilibos and Burroughs will take on West Ranch Saturday.

Milken (7-7) 65, Alemany (10-3) 55: Milken outscored Alemany 28-15 in the second half and only allowed three points in the fourth quarter. Grayson Coleman had 24 points and four assists for Milken. Freshman Austin Acy had 17 points, eight rebounds and four assists for Alemany.

Calabasas (9-4) 85, Eastside (10-2) 58: Calabasas snapped an Eastside ten-game winning streak with the win. Tristan Cardoso had 28 points, five rebounds and five assists for Calabasas. Calabasas’ Calvin Goetz had 27 points and 10 rebounds and Cristan Duran had 11 points for Eastside.

Pilibos (7-7) 58, West Ranch (4-9) 50: West Ranch was up 28-23 at halftime, but ultimately ended up falling to Pilibos. Connor Peterson had 16 points for West Ranch and Demo Galadjian had 26 points for Pilibos.

Long Beach Poly (7-4) 108, Van Nuys (3-13) 23: Yale commit Jonas Oware had 26 points in 13 minutes of action for Long Beach Poly. Carlos Buiz had 10 points and 11 rebounds for Van Nuys.