Central's Zach Lethbridge drives to the hoop against North Battleford's Keegan Horrell.The Central Cyclones are hoping that Friday's strong opening game will set the tone for the weekend.

Central picked up a 94-50 win over the North Battleford Vikings in the opening game of the 53rd annual Moose Jaw Senior Boys Invitational Basketball Tournament on Friday afternoon.

“That was a great first half that I thought we played,” said Leigh Pethick, head coach of the Cyclones.  “We were ready to go and our guys were aggressive and assertive taking it to the rim.  We shot well, we defended well.”

A strong first quarter kicked off the game for the Cyclones as they took a 31-8 advantage over the Vikings after one.  They continued to extend that lead in the second quarter, holding North Battleford to eight points again, while pushing their total to 53.

The second half wasn't quite as solid for Central, but they continued to make it look easy against the younger and smaller Vikings.  They led 75-32 after three quarters and sealed the win with a 19-18 advantage in the fourth.

“Second half was a little scrambly at times,” said Pethick.  “North Battleford is a young team and we have may more experience than they do.  Our guys and our height, we missed a lot shots, but still scored on every possession because we just offensive rebounded.  They were just ready to play.”

Central dominance down low is evident in their point totals with post Aidan Saladana leading the charge with 20 points, while Dax Whitehead chipped in with 16.  Dalton Wolfe put up 13 and Parker Chow scored 11.

The win puts Central in the position they were looking for heading into the tournament as they're now just two wins away for the title.  More importantly though they came out and played a solid game right from the opening tip-off.

“I was on our guys because we wanted to be ready for this first game so we could at least compete against these tough teams on the A side and measure ourselves,” said Pethick.  “I'm happy that we've got one under our belts.”

Central advances into Saturday's semifinal with the win.  They'll be on the court at Peacock at 10:30am.  The Peacock Toilers also advance to the semifinals thanks to a 103-31 win over the Meadow Lake Spartans.  Ryder Epoch paced the Toilers in the win with 29 points.  They'll be on the court in the semifinal at 12:00pm against Weyburn, who topped Saskatoon Marion Graham 74-63.

The tournament final goes at 5:00pm on Saturday at Peacock.