By this time next week, a favorite will have emerged in the 7-8 grade Warren County elementary boys league.
The Dibrell Wildcats and Eastside Bulldogs are on a collision course for Thursday, Feb. 2, as both teams finished the fourth week of the regular season undefeated.
Dibrell improved to 5-0 Thursday night by taking down the Morrison Eagles 40-25. Eastside matched the Wildcats as the Bulldogs beat the Centertown Warriors 39-22.
A bad break for the Eagles gave Dibrell an easy victory on Thursday night.
Holden Baker, the league’s leading scorer, was injured in the first half against the Wildcats and he took most of the Morrison offense to the bench with him.
Dibrell had already built an early double-digit lead before Baker’s injury, but Morrison couldn’t make a comeback without its star forward.
The Wildcats relied on outside shooting to gain an early advantage. Dibrell scored all its first-quarter points on 3-pointers as Trey Cantrell connected on two and Austin Melton and Christian Wilkinson hit one apiece.
Cantrell started moving into the paint in the second quarter as the seventh-grader hit three floaters to help Dibrell build a 24-12 lead by halftime.
Cantrell added another 3-pointer and a three-point play in the third quarter before watching the rest of the game from the bench as Dibrell went with its subs to finish.
Cantrell finished with 18 points, moving himself into the top three in league scoring. Rounding out the scoring for Dibrell was Wilkinson with five, Dillon Bennett and Malachi Barrett with four apiece, Melton with three, and Ethan Green, Corbin Hildreth and Douglas LeBeau with two points each.
Hunter Hall lead Morrison with 10 points. Tommy Juarez added six, followed by Baker and Brayton Kelsey with three points apiece. Colton Smith chipped in two and Justin Holt scored one. Morrison fell to 2-3 with the loss.
Tyler Beaty and Dakota Nunley each scored nine points to help Eastside win by 17 over Centertown on the road Thursday.
Cito Garcia added seven, followed by Alex Yates with five and Mitchell Stembridge with four. Kade Burnett hit a 3-pointer in the second quarter for his only points.  Jesse Jones scored two points off the bench for Eastside.
Sam Deason scored nine points for the Warriors. McCall Turner finished with six, followed by Austin Berry with four, Brandon Steg with two and Nicholas WIlliamson with one. The Warriors dropped to 0-5 with their latest loss.
In other elementary action, Irving College nearly let the Boyd Broncos come back to steal a win from the Tigers.
Irving College led by 19 entering the fourth quarter, but didn’t score in the final period as Boyd made a valiant comeback. The Broncos fell five points short, losing 43-38.
Robbie Selig scored 18 points for the Tigers before watching the fourth quarter from the bench with the rest of the Irving College starters.
Dustin Hale added nine, while Logan Martin and Tyler Morton scored six points apiece. Chattum Jennings and Austin Turner chipped in two points each.
Casey Owens led Boyd, now 0-5, with 13 points. Landon Scott scored nine points, followed by Philip Brock with eight. Braxton Moody added six and Noah Kuykendall pitched in two.