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TRACY The Tracy-Milroy-Balaton Panthers will have the best of both worlds tonight.

After a 69-57 victory over Russell-Tyler-Ruthton in the Holiday Hoops Tournament in Tracy, the Panthers will not only be playing for the championship, but they'll also be competing in their own gym.

After taking a 37-30 halftime lead, the Panthers lit up the scoreboard in the second half. At one point late in the final half, the Panthers held a 57-39 lead.

"It was a big game," said TMB guard Dominic Dolan. "RTR is a pretty good rival with us and we like playing them. Big crowd, tournament time."

After a tight first half, the Panthers quickly turned the final 18 minutes into a rout. Dolan said the team looked at the second half as a new game.

"Just thought the score was 0-0," Dolan said. "Just play hard in the second half. Just a whole new half, gotta play hard."

Junior guard Joe Hook led the Panthers with a game-high 27 points, hitting 4-of-4 from three-point range. Dominic Dolan added 20 points and five assists.

TMB head coach Rick Haberman said the team doesn't always make a distinct effort to get certain players looks, but thought his Panthers did a good job of getting the ball to Hook.

"We don't necessarily stress one guy in the offense," Haberman said. "We try to keep everybody involved so the defense has to stop everybody, and then if somebody's getting a hot hand then we go to them a little bit more and we did a good job of finding Joe."

Jeremy Hoflock came through with 12 points and eight rebounds for TMB (4-0). Shane Erickson had four steals.

The Knights (2-3) were led by Taylor Newton, who poured in 17 points.

Dustin King added 14 points and eight rebounds. Jason Minett scored 10 points and had two steals.

Haberman said he made no changes in schemes for the Panthers at halftime. Instead, it came down to hustle and rebounding.

"They controlled the boards in the first half," Haberman said, "and I thought the second half, we did a better job of not giving them second shots, and just going after loose balls. It seemed like in the first half and in the first minute of the second half RTR got all the loose balls and that made the difference. And I thought once we started going after those loose balls and rebounding better things turned in our favor just a little bit more."

Dolan saw the Panthers' victory as a result of solid offense and defense, rather than simply an offensive explosion.

"It was a little of both," he said. "Defense, we played pretty good. Towards the end we started rebounding better, but offense, we shot pretty well. We did a lot of things right offensively."

TMB will play Wabasso tonight at 7:30., while RTR takes on Red Rock Central at 6 p.m.

RTR (57)

Brent Etrheim 1 2-2 4, Mike Kent 2 2-4 7, Dustin King 7 0-0 14, Taylor

Newton 6 4-6 17, Jason Minett 3 2-4 10, Dylan Kor 1 0-1 2, Travis King 1 1-2 3. Totals 21 11-19 57.

Three-pointers 4 Rebounds 26 (King 8) Assists 6 (Etrheim 2, Newton 2) Steals 4 (Newton 2, Minett 2) Blocks 1 Turnovers 16 Totals Fouls 20

TMB (69)

Josh Soupir 1 0-0 2, Aric Carpenter 1 0-2 2, Lucas Dolan 1 1-3 3, Dominic Dolan 7 4-6 20, Joe Hook 10 3-4 27, Shane Erickson 1 0-0 3,

Jeremy Hoflock 4 4-9 12. Totals 25 12-24 69.

Three-pointeres 7 Rebounds 36 (Hoflock 8) Assists 8 (Dominic Dolan 5) Steals 6 (Erickson 4) Blocks 0 Turnovers 17 Total Fouls 20.

Halftime Score TMB 37, RTR 30