Basketball Game Preview: Auburn Mountainview Lions vs. Kelso Hilanders

The Auburn Mountainview Lions and the Kelso Hilanders will round out the year against one another at at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday. Auburn Mountainview is currently enjoying a perfect season and no doubt wants to keep things rolling.

If Kelso heads into halftime all tied up, they better play a good second half: that's when Auburn Mountainview took over last week. Auburn Mountainview walked away with a 46-36 win over Jackson on Saturday. The 46-point effort marked the Lions' lowest-scoring contest of the season, but in the end it didn't matter.

Auburn Mountainview's success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Sebastian Arius led the charge by dropping a double-double on 13 points and ten rebounds. The dominant performance also gave Arius a new career-high in steals (seven). Another player making a difference was Beckett Jones, who went 5 of 7 en route to 12 points.

Meanwhile, Kelso might have been a little too into the holiday spirit, gifting R.A. Long an easy 61-37 victory. While losing is never fun, the Hilanders can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Washington basketball rankings (they are ranked 259th, while the Lumberjacks are ranked 46th).

Auburn Mountainview pushed their record up to 8-0 with the win, which was their eighth straight at home dating back to last season. The wins came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 72.8 points per game. As for Kelso, their defeat dropped their record down to 1-6.