From each of the four games they’ve played this year, the Kingston Blues emerged with the victory. They haven’t, however, always started well.

Thursday they did.

Playing solidly in all facets of the game from the opening tip, the Blues took a 16-point lead into halftime and they went on to defeat the La Salle Black Knights 60-28 in a senior boys high school basketball game at KC.

On the final day of the pre-Christmas portion of the schedule, the win allowed the Blues to move into a first-place tie with the idle Frontenac Falcons, two of the four teams who go into the break undefeated. The other two, Holy Cross Crusaders and Regiopolis Notre Dame Panthers, both 2-0, also had the day off Thursday.

Reilly Lacasandile led KC with 12 points, all of them coming in the first half, as the Blues built a 33-17 lead. Kai Ferrall, off the bench, also got all seven of his points in the first half.

Isaac Foley added nine points to a Blues attack that got scoring from 12 different players.

La Salle, which managed just three field goals in the second half, got 10 points from Cody Webb and eight from Mitch Dowd.

Elsewhere Thursday in the Kingston Area Secondary Schools Athletic Association, the Sydenham Golden Eagles and Napanee Golden Hawks both reached .500. The Eagles did so with relative ease in a 56-16 win over the Granite Ridge Gryphons in Sharbot Lake, but the Hawks had a much tougher go of it, needing three overtime periods before they could finally dispose of the Bayridge Blazers 69-68.

Playing in Napanee, Matt Campbell scored 17 points to lead the Hawks, who climbed to 2-2. Bayridge got 27 points from Matt Brash, but that wasn’t enough to prevent the only team in the league with more than half its schedule complete going into the break from falling to 1-4.