It was a busy weekend for local hoops teams, with most adding losses to their records.

Waterloo trailed by 11 points at halftime to Highland before surging back and capturing a 51-44 home conference victory Friday night. Six straight points from Dustin Crawford and an old-fashioned three-point play by Ian Schrader cut Highland’s lead to 27-24 with 3:30 left in the third quarter.

Austin Balabas, who led Waterloo with 16 points on the night, made five straight points at the end of the third quarter to pull the hometown ‘Dogs to 30-29 entering the final period. He then made two straight three-pointers early in the fourth quarter to put Waterloo ahead for good.

Ty Lenhardt added 13 points for Waterloo (4-11), who lost 58-48 at Wood River on Saturday.

Head coach Dane Walter’s Bulldogs are participating in the Chester Invitational Tournament and open with Perryville on Monday night. Waterloo beat Perryville at home on Dec. 18.

Also competing in the Chester tournament is Valmeyer (8-7), who picked up a thrilling 49-47 home win over Red Bud on Friday night. Jacob Rowold led the Pirates with 16 points and 10 rebounds. Alex Kueker led Red Bud with 18 points.

Valmeyer opens the Chester tourney against Saxony Lutheran on Tuesday night.

Columbia (10-5) had its six-game winning streak snapped Friday night at conference foe Breese Central. The Eagles lost 51-45. Jackson Holmes led the way with 17 points for the Eagles, who were outscored 14-4 in the fourth quarter.

Columbia plays at Metro-East Lutheran on Tuesday.

The woes continue for longtime head coach Dennis Rueter’s young Gibault squad. The Hawks (3-12) lost 44-41 at Civic Memorial on Friday and suffered a 43-28 home defeat at the hands of Wesclin on Saturday.

Kameron Hanvey led Gibault with 17 points and five steals on Friday. The Hawks were outrebounded 30-18 by Civic Memorial.

Will Simonton led the Hawks on Saturday with 10 points. Gibault committed 15 turnovers and shot just 28 percent from the floor against Wesclin.

The Hawks play at Roxana on Tuesday.

Read more on recent hoops action in the Jan. 15 issue of the Republic-Times newspaper. To subscribe, click here.