The Bitburg Barons served notice on the European Division II boys tournament field that they’ll be a force to be reckoned with by defeating two Division I teams.

On Friday, Bitburg (5-2 overall, 3-1 in Region II) — behind 22 points, six assists and five steals by Joseph Tarnate and 16 points and six steals by Cameron Jackson — pulled out a 73-72 victory at Kaiserslautern.

On Saturday, they went themselves one better by handing visiting Ramstein its first defeat of the season, 70-66.

Jackson topped the charts on Saturday by scoring 24 points, blocking four shots and sinking four three-pointers.

“His last three put us ahead,” Bitburg coach Terrence Hoffman said by telephone Saturday, “and he had a free throw after that. He scored our last four points.”

Tarnate registered 13 points and four assists in the victory, and Deion Giddens, who blocked five Kaiserslautern shots on Friday, batted down six Ramstein tries on Saturday.

Dillon Wadsack led Ramstein (8-1, 4-1 in Region II) with 27 points.

In other boys’ games of note:

Heidelberg 69, Patch 52: On Friday at Stuttgart, the Lions broke out to a 19-10 first-quarter lead and didn’t look back.

According to Patch’s Shawn Phelps, “the Panthers could not keep the aggressive Lions off the offensive boards as they led from start to finish.”

The key to the game was Heidelberg’s rebounders — Chris Cuthbert, who grabbed 14; J.C. Sharer, who pulled down 12; and Alex Savusa, who snared six.

“Chris Cuthbert (who scored 20 points in Thursday’s 81-63 Heidelberg home victory) had another strong outing,” Phelps wrote in his e-mail, “with 14 points and 10 rebounds.”

Chris Frazier, who was 4-for-6 on three-point tries, led Heidelberg with 20 points.

Lakenheath 45, Kaiserslautern 44: On Saturday at Kaiserslautern, the Lancers, behind 20 points from Trevor Snapp, salvaged the second game of a weekend trip to Germany to play Division I foes by beating Kaiserslautern (2-5). Lakenheath (6-3) lost to Ramstein 60-33 on Friday.

Rota 70, Brussels 47: On Friday at RAF Alconbury, England, Rota avenged a rare loss to a DODDS-Europe team by outclassing a Brigands squad that had edged them 62-60 on Thursday.

Trevon Owens scored 30 points and Dale Parker 15 in the victory.

The Brigands prevailed Thursday, according to Alconbury coach Ron Behr, when Jason Sumpter, who matched Owens for game-scoring honors with 25, stole the ball in the closing seconds. Sumpter whipped the ball to teammate Jeremy Howell, who made the game-winning layup as time expired.

SHAPE 51, AFNORTH 40: On Saturday at SHAPE, Belgium, the two rivals got to play a game to its conclusion. The two teams were tied at 64 Friday night at Brunssum, Netherlands, and about to begin an overtime period when a fire alarm ended all activity at the school.

No date for concluding Friday’s suspended game has been set. AFNORTH coach Rawn Jones said by telephone on Saturday that he elected not to finish Friday’s game on Saturday because he had several starters out for college testing.

Kenny Conlan provided the scoring for SHAPE (3-5, 2-2 in Region I) on Saturday with 23 points; his teammate Jimmy Drago scored 10 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. AFNORTH is 3-6, 1-4.

Aviano 76, Sigonella 62: On Saturday at Sigonella, Italy, Jamal Tuck scored 29 points, and Denzell Barnett, Sean Outing and Kareem Williams each added 12 for the Saints (8-0).

Aviano, which prevailed 76-48 on Friday, got five steals each from Josh Nunez and Outing, and five assists from Williams.

Migrated