(BUNKER) – The 2018 Black River League Tournament comes to J-98 Thursday night with the boys semi-final round.

The first game features the top seed South Iron Panthers at 10-2 taking on the host team, the 8-6 Bunker Eagles. The Panthers will play their first game in the BRL Tournament after receiving an opening round bye. South Iron makes for an interesting 1-seed, being led by a strong cast of freshmen including Brock Wakefield and Marco Burse, who average 21 and 7 points per game respectively. Panthers head coach Dusty Dinkins has some high praise for the freshmen on his squad.

In the other semi-final, the seventh-seeded East Carter Redbirds will do battle with the third-seeded Ellington Whippets. At 4-8 on the season, East Carter will look to keep things rolling after scoring 94 points against Lesterville in the first round. Redbirds head coach Jordan Penn says he wants to see his guys keep up the effort on the boards.

The Whippets, at 8-7 on the year, defeated the Redbirds on Dec. 18 by a score of 68-60. Whippets head coach Jeremy Peterson says they will have to focus defensively to get the victory again.

Coverage of the boys semi-final round at the Black River League Tournament begins at 6:15 p.m. Thursday night on J-98

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