HOUMA – Considering the way the season ended in the spring of 2004 for the Reserve Christian boys basketball team, you had to feel sorry for whoever they faced in their season opener in the fall of this new year.

That just happened to be Houma Christian, which fell to the Eagles here on Tuesday night in a 100-62 rout.

Reserve Christian, after winning two straight state championships, was poised to go for the trifecta earlier this year when the state prep basketball playoffs kicked off.

But a controversial ruling from the LHSAA on two foreign exchange students at RCA booted the Eagles out of the playoffs and ended their season on a disappointing note.

With that incident behind them, the team has anxiously looked forward to the start of the 04-05 season, which began on Tuesday night at Houma, where four players scored in double figures to lead the opening victory.

“Yes, I would say the kids were pretty anxious to play our first game,” head coach Timmy Byrd said. “And even though I know we had more talent than Houma did, I still thought our kids played hard the whole way. Maybe after six games we might let down if we played a team like this, but on Tuesday, there was no problem.”

The game started with all-state returnee Demond “Tweetie” Carter taking possession of the tip, and tossing a perfect alley-oop slam dunk to Kevin Branch.

It was one of four dunks Branch had on the night, and the Houma crowd was quickly silenced.

“Houma really had a pretty good team,” Byrd said. “But we feel very good about the talent we have on this club and for the first game, we got great effort and ball movement. Our practices are so hard, so our games are almost an easy thing for our kids.”

Branch finished the game with 15 points and four steals to go with his above the rim play, and had plenty of support from the talented Reserve Christian team.

Carter finishd the game with 35 points, hitting seven of 11 from the three-point range. He scored 10 in the first quarter to spark a 25-10 lead, then tossed in a dozen in the second period as RCA zoomed out to a 55-32 advantage. Carter added 10 assists, had six rebounds and three steals.

Justin Porter led the club on the boards with 11 rebounds and scored 18 points, while Tinos Brozos scored 16 and Aaron Washington added eight.