Eisenhower's Jordan Gaut and Southridge's Clayton Homme go for a loose ball in the first half of Monday's game.   GORDON KING/ Yakima Herald-Republic

 Weary from an emotional weekend of league play and without the buzz that normally accompanies their Tourneytown.com Shootout appearance, the Eisenhower boys found a shot of energy to feed off Monday evening.

Themselves.

With junior standout Taylor Elmo scoring their first nine points, the Cadets raced to an 11-point lead after the first quarter and never looked back, beating Southridge 61-42 in a nonleague basketball contest between the two Columbia Basin League teams.

Eisenhower improved to 4-0 at the Shootout.

"We told them we had to create our own atmosphere," said coach Pat Fitterer, who guided the Cadets to Shootout wins against rival Davis in 2005 and 2006 before raucous crowds and topped the Suns in another nonleaguer last year that was better attended.

The Cadets were coming off Friday's come-from-behind victory against the Pirates followed by a close loss at league-leading Wenatchee the next night. Three games in four days, though, didn't seem to faze Ike, now 10-5 overall and 3-4 in CBL 4A division.

"We're pretty used to it because we play in tournaments," said Elmo, who finished with a game-high 20 points on 8-for-11 shooting and also grabbed a team-best seven rebounds.

After the opening period, the Cadets kept the Suns at a safe distance. When Southridge did mount much of a rally it was usually one or both of the Elmos -- Taylor and his cousin, Jordan -- who quashed the uprising.

Trailing by 12 points at halftime, the Suns scored the first seven points of the second half to get within five at 31-26. But Taylor Elmo had a three-point play and Jordan Elmo drained a pair of 3-pointers as the Cadets answered with a 9-2 run.

The two capped the third quarter with a Jordan-to-Taylor alley-oop dunk and a 47-35 Ike lead.

"That's good inside-outside Elmo action," Fitterer noted.

The Suns, 5-8 overall, 3-2 in league, got no closer than 10 the rest of the way.

Ike sophomore James Lopez matched a Shootout record with 10 assists, the last a spectacular behind-the-back pass to Jordan Elmo, who laid it in, was fouled and converted a three-point play. West Valley's Todd Perrault set the record against Bellingham in 2003.

Jordan Elmo finished with 14 points and five assists and four other players had six points.

The Cadets put together a strong effort on the defensive end, too. Ike held the Suns to 43-percent shooting while shooting 48 percent itself. Southridge made just 3 of 14 3-pointers in the game (21.4 percent).

Fitterer credited junior Jordan Gaut's solid job defending Southridge leading scorer Andrew Mendenhall. Mendenhall entered the game with a 15.6-point average but scored just five points on 2-for-8 shooting.

Gaut had four of the Cadets 11 steals.

Kody Fullerton topped the Suns with 17 points and Clayton Homme had 13.

The Cadets are off Friday but host four of their next five games, including Saturday's contest with Richland, which is tied for second place, and a Feb. 5 rematch against Davis.