BUTTE — The Butte High girls and Butte Central boys are still the big kids on the city championship block.
Both teams rolled to easy wins in their respective crosstown games on Tuesday evening at the Butte Civic Center in the first basketball games to unfold at that venue this season.
In the girls game, the Bulldogs extended their win streak over Central to five games with a 62-32 rout over the Maroons.
Eighth grader Cadence Graham delivered a performance well beyond her years, pouring in a game-high 18 points including four 3-pointers as the Bulldogs stormed to a 15-7 lead after one quarter and expanded its advantage to 28-17 by halftime.
Butte then outscored Central 22-9 in the third quarter to put the game on ice.
Laura Rosenleaf added 12 points for the Bulldogs and Emmarie Richards had nine.
Central was led by 17 points from Brooke Badovinac and 10 from Mollie Drew.
In the boys game, Butte High knew that containing Central senior Dougie Peoples needed to be the top priority. But the Bulldogs couldn't find a way to slow him down.
Peoples piled up a game-leading 23 points and Jack Keeley added 20 as the Maroons quickly built a double-digit lead and then surged to a 76-47 win to extend its streak against Butte to three straight games.
An off-balance layup from Central senior Kyle Holter gave the Maroons a 16-6 lead with 2:30 remaining in the first quarter and Butte would never make it a single-digit game again.
Holter added 10 points for the Maroons and Eric Loos had 8.
Butte was led by 20 points from Jace Stenson and 10 from Bo Demarais.
