Jordan Holmes led Columbia with 19 points on Tuesday night. (Alan Dooley photo)

The annual “Pack the Place” high school rivalry showdown between the Columbia and Waterloo basketball teams took place Tuesday night at Columbia High School.

The Waterloo girls avenged an earlier defeat to the Eagles, winning the first contest of the night, 55-39. Taylor Augustine led the Bulldogs with 20 points.

The girls contest opened with Waterloo leading by a point at the end of the first quarter, 10-9.  Columbia inched ahead to go to the locker room at halftime up 21-20.

Columbia’s shooting went cold in the third quarter, and they finished that frame down 33-25. Waterloo upped the pressure in the final quarter and piled on 22 points to win the game going away, 55-39. With the victory, Waterloo avenges its prior defeat to its rival in the Candy Cane Classic title game at Gibault.

The boys game was close from the start, with Waterloo holding strong against the Eagles until Columbia’s Jordan Holmes buried a three-pointer at the first quarter buzzer to build an eight-point lead. Columbia took a 19-13 lead at halftime.

Columbia came out firing in the second half, holding a 37-26 lead entering the fourth quarter.

It looked like Columbia was going to coast to an easy win until Waterloo came roaring back to close the gap to two points late. Holmes and Brennan van Breusegen joined to net crucial free throws to ice the game.  Together, they combined to hit 10 of 12 free throw chances in the game.