The 2021 portion of the high school basketball season opened up Friday night and on 92.1 KMZA Valley Heights opened the new year with a sweep of Troy winning the girl’s game 60-17 and the boy’s 47-40.

Girls: Valley Heights 60, Troy 17

The girl’s game was all Valley Heights from the start as the Mustangs got out to a 26-2 lead after the first quarter behind 10 first quarter points from junior Emma Yungeberg, seven from Cat Toerber and six from Maddy Vermetten.

Valley Heights’ lead ballooned to 34 points by halftime while Cat Toerber scored five more points in the third quarter to put the game away.

The Mustangs forced 18 turnovers in the win despite shooting just 12-of-25 from the free throw line.

Valley Heights finished with three players in double figures led by Cat Toerber who scored a game-high 16 points while Yungeberg added 15 and Vermetten 12.

Troy was led by Abby Parks and Reagan Hill who each had four points.

Next up for Valley Heights (4-0) is a road game at Minneapolis on Tuesday while Troy (2-3) travels to Onaga.

Boys: Valley Heights 47, Troy 40

The boy’s game was much more competitive despite Valley Heights racing out to an 18-4 lead after one behind 11 points from senior Cameron Beardsley.

Troy battled back in the second quarter outscoring the Mustangs 16-4 in the frame behind two 3-pointers from Cam Anderson and five points from Jerrit Norris to trail just 22-20 going into halftime.

The quarter belonged to Beardsley and the Mustangs as he scored 11 more points in the frame to give Valley Heights a 35-24 lead going into the fourth.

Troy was able to pull within four late in the fourth quarter with Norris leading the charge scoring nine points in the frame, but Beardsley drilled four clutch free throws down the stretch to ice the game.

Beardsley at one point had more points that Troy did as a team as the senior scored a game-high 28 points while junior Trenton L’Ecuyer added nine including seven in the fourth quarter.

Troy was led in the loss by Norris who finished with 18 points while Anderson added nine on three triples.

Valley Heights improved to 2-2 on the season with the win while Troy dropped to 1-4.