North Medford's Traeger Healy shoots a 3-pointer against Roseburg Tuesday evening in Medford.

Surreal as it may have been to some, North Medford made itself at home Tuesday night at the Pawlowski Athletic Center in the first high school varsity basketball action at the site in 15 years.

The Black Tornado built a 14-point advantage by halftime and dominated the fourth quarter to erase all doubt in a 71-43 boys basketball win over visiting Roseburg that culminated a trying day for the North Medford faithful as well as a challenging past week.

Tuesday marked the first game action for the Black Tornado since a Jan. 31 road loss to Sheldon, which was followed by a school closure due to heavy snowfall on the ensuing Monday that kept them off campus until last Friday.

That Friday afternoon was also when a crack was discovered in one of the trusses at the Lacey Athletic Center at North Medford High — believed to be brought on by the weight of the snow on the gymnasium rooftop — that initially resulted in a facility closure and then an ultimate collapse of the roof Tuesday morning when more beams gave way.

North Medford had already announced over the weekend that its remaining athletic events this winter would take place at the Pawlowski Athletic Center, which formerly housed South Medford High sports until the new school was opened in 2010 and now is home to Oakdale Middle School students.

“The last week or so has been kind of crazy with the snow days and not really being able to be with the group and practice,” said North Medford senior guard Easton Curtis. “And then you get done with the snow days and you think you’re good and then this happens with the roof collapsing. It’s scrambled, for sure, but I think we’re all holding up pretty good. And this is a perfect spot. I mean, there’s nothing wrong with this gym.”

Curtis provided 20 points, Keenan Stewart scored 11 points and Dylan Scott added nine points, four steals and four assists to lift North Medford to 12-7 overall and 5-2 in Southwest Conference play.

“I think we played all right,” Curtis said given the circumstances. “There’s a lot to learn from every game, and there’s definitely things to learn from tonight. It was really hard to build energy at the beginning of the game. We came out pretty dead, and it was hard to get going, but I think we did a pretty good job running around, working hard and playing tough defense, and that’s all you can do.”

Nate Anderson chipped in with seven points and eight rebounds, while Traeger Healy had seven points, five rebounds and four assists for the Black Tornado, who closed the first quarter with an 11-3 run to take control and stretched their advantage in the second quarter to lead 34-20 at halftime.

“This is a different environment but the thing about kids is they are resilient,” said North Medford head coach Scott Plankenhorn. “You just tell them where you’re going, and they show up. And this group, they work super hard and they do what we want them to do. We’re a little scrambled, but at the end of the day, we got at least three practices in here before we played a game, which helped a lot.”

“We’re just lucky that Medford has all these nice places to be able to play basketball,” added the coach. “We were laughing in the referee huddle about how long this gym has been here, and I said, believe it or not, I played here. This is still a nice facility and, I mean, we’re going back to the 80s when I played here.”

The last official varsity game to be played at the Pawlowski Athletic Center was March 3, 2010, when Centennial rallied to upset South Medford, 60-53, in a state playoff game. The venue, however, has been a mainstay for decades when it comes to basketball at the youth levels between AAU and the Manny Basketball League.

“All of us have played here a lot just growing up with AAU and Manny Ball and all that, so it’s pretty cool to play here again,” said Curtis. “The gym is a little different and the floors are a different color, but it’s cool coming back here, for sure. We’ll get comfortable with it and it’ll be fine. We’ll start shooting better on these rims, it just takes a little bit of adjusting.”

That also comes in the form of where to sit and which direction to enter and exit the gymnasium when it comes to facility veterans like Plankenhorn, who found himself coaching on the right side of the court and utilizing the home locker room for the first time as North Medford’s head coach.

At the Lacey Athletic Center, the Black Tornado bench has also been on the left side of the court.

“We knew we were going to be in this home locker room,” said Plankenhorn, “but we did talk about what side we should sit on, because there’s a lot of memories on that (left) side. And I was like, you know what, let’s do what we’re supposed to do because when you come out of this side of the locker room, it’s a lot easier to just go to that bench, so that’s what we decided to do.”

“There’s a lot of memories on that (left) bench, though, and some of them aren’t so awesome,” he added with a wry smile. “Obviously, the first one that comes back is the 74-foot (Mike Brassel) shot right in front of me (for a 55-54 South Medford buzzer-beating win on Jan. 12, 2010). So, yeah, definitely a lot of stuff here and a lot of memories, but I’m just glad we were able to even play tonight. To find a place that’s this nice to play in — with what’s happening to our gymnasium — it’s a pleasure to just keep playing basketball. It’s a weird deal, but definitely a good start for us.”

ROSEBURG (43): Leeworthy 16, Scott 7, Palm 0, Bentea 15, Egbert 1, Cantrell 0, Luther 4, Kemmerle 0. Totals: 15 9-12 43.

NORTH MEDFORD (71): D. Scott 9, Rea 6, Sawyer 4, Curtis 20, Snyder 3, Healy 5, Stewart 11, Anderson 7, Chin 0, Patterson 4, Q. Scott 2. Totals: 28 9-15 71.

Roseburg 13 7 15 8 — 43

North Medford 18 16 15 22 — 71

3-point goals — Roseburg 4 (Bentea 3, Leeworthy 1), North Medford 6 (Curtis 2, Sawyer 1, Snyder 1, Healy 1, Stewart 1). Technical fouls — Bentea.