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Bereket Evans scored 10 of his 19 points in the fourth quarter Friday night at a packed Isenburg-Siler Gym as Morristown West won the first game of the annual city championship series with a 69-63 victory over Morristown East. East had won five straight games in the series.

The Trojans are now the only unbeaten team in District Two 4A with a 2-0 mark and improved to 8-8 for the season.

West led by seven with 6:55 left in the game before the Hurricanes rallied within a point. The Trojans then hit free throws down the stretch while East missed three’s and turned the ball over.

East is now 10-9 for the season and 1-1 in district play.

Tory House led the Trojans with 20 points and grabbed 13 rebounds. Jalen McCullough contributed a dozen points.

The Hurricanes got 20 points from Keagan Mink while Kyle Cloninger added 19 before fouling out late in the game and Mason Smith hit five three’s for 15 points.

Ty Steisslinger hit a three with 49 seconds left in the third quarter to tie the game at 47-47 and Bricyn Gudger knocked down another with nine seconds on the clock to give the Trojans a three-point lead at the end of the third period.

Jalen McCullough scored early in the fourth frame to make it a five-point game and a triple by Evans with 6:55 left upped the count to 56-49.

Mink hit a bucket for the Hurricanes and then Isaac Greene fired in the three-pointer to close it down to 56-54.

Evans hit three free throws for West and Mink made two for the ‘Canes and it was 59-56 with 4:55 to play. House dropped in a pair of charity tosses and Mink scored again for East.

House got another bucket in the lane to make it 63-58. Cloninger scored two baskets for the home team to close it down to one with 2:17 remaining but points were hard to come by for the Hurricanes the rest of the way.

McCullough hit a free throw and Gudger scored for West. Greene’s free throw with 54.3 remaining was the final point for East. Over the next 40 seconds, the ‘Canes missed two three-pointers, had a walking violation and threw the ball away on an inbounds pass.

McCullough hit a free throw with 17.8 showing and Evans got a layup at the final horn.

West coach Joe Dobbins said, “I was really happy for our boys tonight. They fought hard all the way through. We knew it was going to be a tough battle for us especially playing at East. It was a big win for our program.

“We had a lot of guys step up when they really needed to,” Dobbins added. “We got some key rebounds and hit some key shots. I was really proud of them.”

Dobbins said, “Tory did a great job for us inside all night long. He scored and got a bunch of big rebounds. Steisslinger and Bereket traded out guarding Kyle and I thought they did a good job with that.

“It was just an unbelievable atmosphere tonight. If any of the fans didn’t enjoy the games they saw tonight, there were just in the wrong place. It was great to see the smiles on our kids faces.”

East coach Alden Collins said, “It was a physical game and I thought they hurt us scoring inside.

“West had a big run at the end of the first quarter and start of the second that really was big,” he added. “We had a lot of chances at the end but we just couldn’t get the ball in the basket at times.”

West wound up shooting 51 percent from the floor including 4 of 11 three’s. The Hurricanes shot 47.7 on 21 of 48 and made 9 of 25 from behind the arc.

With House leading the way, the Trojans controlled the backboards, 34-26. Cloninger and Mink had seven each for East.

East took an early 8-4 lead before the visitors rallied to tie the game. A three by Smith gave the Hurricanes a 15-11 lead after one quarter.

Mink scored to start the second quarter before East went five minutes without scoring. Meanwhile, the Trojans reeled off 14 points to grab a 25-17 advantage. Evans and House had three baskets each in the run.

A bucket by Blake Creech finally got East back on the scoreboard and it rallied within 27-24 on a pair of free throws by Cloninger with 1:42 left in the half. However, Steisslinger had an old-fashioned three-point play and Kyan Almonte hit a basket and West was in front 32-26 at intermission.

Smith hit four three’s and Cloninger scored seven points as the ‘Canes chipped away at the spread and finally took the lead at 45-42 on a triple by Cloninger with 2:19 left in the third. Steisslinger and Gudger then hit the big three’s to put the Trojans up by three at the final rest stop.