BOURBON — End 2023 and open the Battle in Bourbon Boys Basketball Tournament with a win.

That was on the minds of Chandler Harker’s Vienna Eagle basketball team Saturday morning when the top-seeded Eagles opened the Fifth Annual Battle in Bourbon Boys Basketball Tournament against the eighth-seeded Richland Bears.

Already defeating the Bears in their season opener, Vienna was going for their second win over Richland.

Racing out to a 25-4 lead after one quarter, Vienna ended up with a 38-6 halftime lead before going on to a 72-23 victory in first-round action at Bourbon High School.

Sitting 43 points shy of 1,000 for his career, senior Cash Stricklan scored 12 of his game-high 19 points in the first half.

Now 24 points away, Stricklan’s next chance to reach 1,000 career points will be tonight (Wednesday) against the host Warhawks in the championship semifinals at approximately 7 p.m.

Joining Stricklan in double figures was Alex Zimmer who scored nine of his 13 points in the third quarter.

Duncan Wilkinson rounded out the double-digit scoring trio for the Eagles with 10 points.

Elias Miller and Sam Rowden each added six points to go along with five points from Gavin Schwartze.

Contributing three points apiece were Hunter Schwartze, Teagan James and Jayce Bertoni.

Rounding out the Vienna scoring against Richland with two points each were Gabe Kleffner and Dylan Long.

Kade Belshe led Richland by scoring eight of his team-high 12 points in the second half.