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The second day of tournament play (that rhymes) brought another pair of close games for CORE Butte’s varsity basketball teams, with both once again finding themselves coming up short.

Varsity Boys – Maxwell Tournament

CORE Butte, coming from a hard loss by Maxwell High School, faced the Willows Honkers in their second tournament matchup at 4:30 p.m. The Lynx showed noticeable improvement from recent outings, and this time they kept the game far closer than earlier defeats, but Willows held control late and handed CORE a 56-44 loss.

The result extends CORE’s losing streak to six and moves their overall record to 0-5, but the 12-point margin was one of their most competitive performances of the season. The Lynx will play their final tournament game Saturday evening against Williams High School.

Varsity Girls – Oroville Tournament

The varsity girls took the floor at Oroville High School for their second tournament game, entering with a 3-1 record and coming off an extremely narrow loss to Gridley the night before. Friday brought another thriller, but CORE came up just narrowly short once again, falling 34-31 to the hosting Tigers.

The Lynx remain one of the most defensively consistent teams in the field, holding Oroville below their season scoring average, yet a late push by the Tigers was enough to steal the win. CORE drops to 3-2 heading into Saturday’s tournament finale against Corning, another strong opponent in the Oroville bracket.

Both varsity teams close out tournament week on Saturday before returning to home competition next Tuesday.

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