A Cook Inlet Conference basketball tournament characterized thus far by lopsided results continued its one-sided way Wednesday at West High, where the Chugiak girls and East boys advanced out of the first round in relatively easy fashion.
The third-seeded Mustangs raced to a 21-2 lead after the first quarter and were never threatened in their 69-31 win over No. 6 Service.
East, the Mustangs' third-seeded counterparts in the boys tournament, also cruised with a 73-59 win over No. 6 seed South.
Both teams advanced to Friday's semifinals.
In its blowout win, Chugiak got contributions up and down its lineup. Ashlynn Burgess led the way with 16 points and 12 rebounds, but she wasn't alone in putting up big numbers. Julia Turner added 16 points for the Mustangs, who also got 14 points and three steals from Hannah Russell and nine points and seven rebounds from Carley Stone.
Katie Pearce scored 10 points to lead the Cougars, who also six points from Nolani Fomai and seven rebounds from Sina Magua.
Chugiak will play Dimond on Friday at 3 p.m. with a berth in the championship -- and an automatic bid to the Class 4A state tournament -- up for grabs. The No. 2 seeded Lynx crushed Bartlett 70-45 in their first-round game Tuesday.
The East boys -- who went 10-4 in the CIC -- had a bit more trouble putting away South, which trailed by nine points heading into the fourth quarter before the T-birds pulled away.
Marquise White scored 23 points, dished six assists and grabbed six rebounds to lead East, which also got 17 points from Moses Miller and 12 from Desmond Johnson.
East shot 53 percent from behind the 3-point line, including a 5-of-7 showing by Miller.
South, which went 4-10 in the conference during the regular season, got a game-high 24 points and eight rebounds from Alex Adams and 10 points from Jake Swanson.
The higher seed has won all six tournament games so far and only one game -- Service's 51-44 win over the Eagle River boys Tuesday -- has featured a single-digit margin of victory.
However, that could change Thursday when the first round wraps up with a pair of No. 4 vs. No. 5 match-ups, with the fourth-seeded South girls (8-6) squaring off against fifth-seeded West (6-8) at 5:30 p.m. and the No. 4 Dimond boys (9-5) going up against No. 5 Bartlett (5-9) at 7 p.m.