With four of North Medford’s top eight boys basketball players moving over late from the football team, the Black Tornado could be excused for a bit of a slow start this winter season.

A good ninth-ranked Nelson squad combined with a first look at basketball action played a role in last weekend’s 25-point season-opening loss, but North Medford took those lumps and used a forward focus to secure a 72-34 triumph over Central on Tuesday night.

Easton Curtis and Traeger Healy each connected for three of the Black Tornado’s 10 3-pointers and North Medford (1-1) enjoyed a better shooting night overall to post its first victory.

“A couple more practices and a good beatdown will fix some problems,” said North Medford head coach Scott Plankenhorn. “We played pretty good today.”

“We got a couple more days getting some legs under us and played really good,” he added. “We shared the ball nice today (15 assists against five turnovers). I felt like we got a lot better attempts with the ball moving, which led to assists. Guys were shooting more open shots and in rhythm and on balance.”

Curtis went 7-for-14 from the field — including 3-of-8 from beyond the arc — and added two assists and two steals. Healy connected on half of his 3-point attempts and was 4-for-7 overall to net 11 points with four rebounds and two blocks.

Sophomore Liam Rea came off the bench to provide 13 points and seven rebounds and all 10 Tornado players scored at least two points.

North Medford built a 21-8 lead after the opening quarter and carried that success forward.

Dillon Sawyer provided five assists, Jaxon Zimmer pulled in five rebounds, Tate Snyder managed four steals and Dylan Scott had nine points and three assists for the Tornado.

“It’s going to take some time,” said Plankenhorn. “To be honest, I felt good going in, but I knew we had still only practiced six times together and we have a lot of young kids that are trying to mesh with seniors. We have the potential to be really good and it could take a while, but we all looked at each other and said we don’t want to take a long time. I felt like that was part of it, they were really locked in today.”

NORTH MEDFORD (72): Scott 9, Rea 13, Sawyer 3, Curtis 17, Snyder 4, Healy 11, Stewart 6, Anderson 4, Chin 3, Zimmer 2. Totals: 28 6-9 72.

CENTRAL (34): Walke 4, Perkins 0, Ball 2, Stevens 1, Burgett 9, Mendazon 0, Baker 3, Holestine 6, Haines 6, Wells 0, Garcia 2, Aguiere 1. Totals: 14 3-6 34.

North Medford 21 15 26 10 — 72

Central 8 9 11 6 — 34

3-point goals — North Medford 10 (Curtis 3, Healy 3, Scott 1, Rea 1, Sawyer 1, Chin 1), Central 3 (Holestine 2, Burgett 1).

GRANTS PASS 70, CRATER 46: At Grants Pass, Crater senior Kyle Bittle recorded 19 points and nine rebounds but Grants Pass used a mid-game 38-18 surge to pull away in the nonleague contest.

Jordan Rossetta scored 20 points and Peyton Bruner added 19 to lead Grants Pass (2-1), which got three 3-pointers apiece from Grady McKittrick and Tim Hart.

Ben Higginson chimed in with eight points, three assists, three rebounds and two steals for the sixth-ranked 5A Comets (2-1), while Malachi Barlow pulled in five boards to go with three assists and Julien Grant had three assists and three rebounds.

CRATER (46): Rodriguez 0, Bryant 5, Smith 4, Higginson 8, Bittle 19, Converse 0, Grant 2, Barlow 4, Robinson 0, Cole 4. Totals: 17 7-9 46.

GRANTS PASS (70): Gerlitz 0, DeChenne 6, Berg 0, Bruner 19, Connelly 5, McKittrick 9, Traylor 0, B. Ely 0, D. Ely 0, Rossetta 20, Hart 9, Dishman 0. Totals: 26 10-14 70.

Crater 13 11 7 15 — 46

Grants Pass 18 22 16 14 — 70

3-point goals — Crater 5 (Higginson 2, Bittle 2, Bryant 1), Grants Pass 8 (McKittrick 3, Hart 3, DeChenne 1, Bruner 1).

MARSHFIELD 57, CASCADE CHRISTIAN 51: At Coos Bay, Cascade Christian senior Jaren Fronckowiak poured in 25 points with four assists and four rebounds but a second-quarter lull proved costly in the nonconference loss.

Hudson Gotzman contributed 13 points and three rebounds and Cade Goldade added five points and six boards for the second-ranked 3A Challengers (0-1), who saw 4A sixth-ranked Marshfield (3-1) use a 14-6 edge in the second quarter to gain control.

CASCADE CHRISTIAN (51): Richardson 4, Fronckowiak 25, Kleker 2, Willard 2, Goldade 5, Snowden 0, Gotzman 13. Totals: 19 7-10 51.

MARSHFIELD (57): Jackson 8, Ainsworth 6, Holmes 2, Lutes 0, Vineyard 14, Carpenter 27, Martin 0, Wyatt 0. Totals: 22 6-13 57.

Cascade Christian 15 6 13 17 — 51

Marshfield 17 14 15 11 — 57

3-point goals — Cascade Christian 6 (Fronckowiak 3, Gotzman 3), Marshfield 7 (Carpenter 4, Ainsworth 2, Jackson 1).

PHOENIX 71, YREKA 43: At Phoenix, Phoenix senior Tobias Akpan powered home 26 points in three quarters to lead three Pirates in double figures in the runaway victory.

Lucas Wihtol added 14 points and Brayden Decker had 10 for seventh-ranked Phoenix (3-0), which used a 26-9 run in the second quarter to seal the outcome.

YREKA (43): Crane 10, Vann 2, Fitzpatrick 2, Hale 7, Duque 3, Zediker 8, Manson 0, Eller 0, McLane 2, Berry 2, Horvath 7, Croy 0. Totals: 16 8-15 43.

PHOENIX (71): Decker 10, Phillips 0, Pyeatt 6, McQueen 2, Akpan 26, Ortega 9, Dobbins 0, Petrone 0, Govenor 2, Roman 2, Wihtol 14. Totals: 30 6-14 71.

Yreka 10 9 15 9 — 43

Phoenix 19 26 17 9 — 71

3-point goals — Yreka 3 (Crane 2, Zediker 1), Phoenix 5 (Decker 2, Wihtol 2, Akpan 1). Technical fouls — Phoenix scorebook.

ST. MARY’S 55, GLIDE 36: At Glide, St. Mary’s junior Jax North provided 20 points and eight rebounds in three quarters to lead the Crusaders to victory in their fifth game in six days.

St. Mary’s (2-3) trailed 10-9 after one quarter, but put together a 33-12 run over the next two quarters to build an insurmountable lead. Freshman A.J. Zimmerman added 11 points and five assists, while senior Kent David had a strong all-around game with eight points, four rebounds and four assists.

Jayden Williams led Glide with 13 points and eight rebounds.

On Monday, St. Mary’s fell 58-56 in its home opener to Weed despite 15 points apiece from David and Nolan Hensman and 11 points and 15 rebounds by North.

ST. MARY’S (55): AJ Zimmerman 11, Anderson 6, Hensman 2, North 20, Van Horn 0, Chmelir 4, Kiene 2, Ausland 0, Primerano 2.

GLIDE (36): Horner 0, Miller 9, Tuter 8, Greer 0, Scott 0, Skinner 0, Standley 2, Williams 13, Groth 0, Brown 4, Reindel 4.

Girls Basketball

NORTH MEDFORD 51, EAGLE POINT 39: Karris Johnson scored 19 of her game-high 26 points in the second half — shooting 5-for-8 from 3-point range — but Eagle Point was unable to recover from an early deficit at North Medford High.

Caileigh Raines collected 24 points, 10 rebounds, nine steals and three blocks to finish just shy of a triple-double for North Medford (2-1), which opened a 16-7 lead in the first quarter.

Sophia West added 10 points and Olivia Boger had six points, five rebounds and five steals for the Black Tornado, while Mariah Lane had four steals and four rebounds and Riley Smalley also pulled in four boards.

Kady Lindstrom provided seven points and six rebounds for the Eagles (2-1), while Jill Garlitz added six rebounds and Kady Ledbetter grabbed four boards.

EAGLE POINT (39): Hanning 2, Johnson 26, Carrillo 0, Metcalf 0, Garlitz 3, Edwards 0, Lindstrom 7, Ledbetter 0, Daw 0, Cabrera 0, Horn 0, Deng-Gomez 1. Totals: 15 3-14 39.

NORTH MEDFORD (51): Brownlee 0, Gomez-Monarez 0, Smalley 7, West 10, Taylor 3, Boger 6, Raines 21, Canton 0, Verduzco 0, Lane 4. Totals: 16 10-22 51.

Eagle Point 7 8 12 12 — 39

North Medford 16 6 15 14 — 51

3-point goals — Eagle Point 6 (Johnson 5, Garlitz 1), North Medford 9 (Raines 3, West 2, Smalley 1, Taylor 1, Boger 1, Lane 1). Fouled out — Boger.

CASCADE CHRISTIAN 38, MARSHFIELD 36: At Coos Bay, Isabel McCauley supplied 18 points and six rebounds and fellow senior Jordynn Jones added 15 points and nine rebounds to lead 3A 10th-ranked Cascade Christian to a season-opening road victory.

ST. MARY’S 40, GLIDE 35: At Glide, Avery Gunn registered 10 points and seven rebounds and Esme Medley added 10 points for St. Mary’s, which knocked down eight 3-pointers to earn the win.

Bailey Strickler added nine points and Ella Yeamans had 12 rebounds for the Crusaders (2-3).

In a 57-20 loss to Weed on Monday, Yeamans produced 11 points and 10 boards.

ST. MARY’S (40): Medley 10, Gunn 10, Wheelock 3, Arthur 0, Rangel Villa 0, Weymouth 3, Yeamans 5, Strickler 9. Totals: 15-48 2-5 40.

GLIDE (35): McCall 7, Standley 0, Anderson 2, Thingvall 6, Weber 5, Clement 2, Moyers 0, Groth 0, Kercher 9, Goodman 4, Horner 0. Totals: 14-44 4-14 35.

St. Mary’s 14 6 10 10 — 40

Glide 6 8 9 12 — 35

3-point goals — St. Mary’s 8-25 (Medley 1, Gunn 2, Wheelock 1, Weymouth 1, Strickler 3), Glide 1-13 (Weber 1).