The Windsor Owls boys basketball team is on pace to set a number of school records. 

With 15 wins, the Owls could be the first 20-win team in program history. Before this past week, it had been nearly 20 years since the Owls last won a tournament, which was in 2004 at Seckman. 

This past week, the Owls won the 9th Annual Bruce Thomas Herculaneum tournament. 

The boys played Pacific High School in the first round of the tournament and won 53-37 advancing them to the next round against St. Pius X. 

Sophomore Noah Barnes said, “I went into the tourney knowing that we were the best team but was going to give it everything I had no matter what for my team.” 

The Owls won every game of the tournament in blowout fashion. 

Sophomore Layton Hollis said, “After winning the first game, I had a good idea on how the rest of the tournament was going to go if we kept playing the way we did.” 

The Owls won 66-17 against the Lancers to advance to the championship. They then beat Northwest 52-36 to capture their first tournament title in 18 years. Coincidentally, the Owls also beat Northwest to win the tournament in 2004. 

For the Herculaneum tournament, the Owls took home several awards–sophomore Layton Hollis was named the tournament MVP. Noah Barnes and Brenton Shirk made the all tournament team as well. 

Barnes said, “I was feeling great. Glad I could go out and perform and do what I had to do for my team and help us win.” 

Hollis, who is leading the team in scoring at 13.2 points per game, was pleased with bringing home an MVP award as a sophomore. 

Hollis said, “I thought I did what I needed to do. I was just trying to achieve the win for my team more than anything. Getting the MVP is amazing but I didn’t try for it, I just played my ball.”

A few days later, the Owls then extended their winning streak to seven games when they beat DeSoto 74-43 in a conference matchup. 

The boys have a couple of key tests this week–at St. Francis Borgia on Tuesday, who is 19-3 on the season and at home against Festus, who beat the Owls earlier this season. 

Layton said, “I think that this week is going to be a hard week. With Festus, I feel like we have a good chance because we are at home and we have all of our fans, but I don’t know about Borgia. I have confidence we can beat them.”