By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

RESERVE — Riverside sported a new look on the basketball court Wednesday night in its season opener against Miller McCoy. The Rebels, however, posted the same dominant result.  

Riverside held McCoy without a made field goal in the first quarter, spurring the Rebels on their way to a 92-36 victory at home over the visiting Lions.

“This was the first time we were able to play together in any kind of game setting. We weren’t able to scrimmage anyone because we’ve only got five who don’t play football,” said Riverside coach Timmy Byrd, noting Riverside’s playoff run in football. “I was pleased, but we were obviously out of shape.

“We did some good things. We played pretty good defense until we got tired.”

Six different Rebels (1-0) scored in double figures, led by Malik Crowfield’s 18 points. Cory Costanza scored 17. Jordan Andrews and Khalea Turner each scored 14, Darrian Cook scored 13 and Timmy Perrilloux scored 10.

The majority of the Rebels’ senior-heavy rotation from last season’s state runner-up graduated over the summer, leaving the team’s lead roles to players like Costanza, a current senior who earned playing time in a reserve role last season.

“It feels good,” said Costanza. “I’ve been here since my freshman year, just working hard, and now I’m getting my shot. This is a whole new team, a different team, and it’s exciting to play with these guys.”

Costanza scored the night’s first points and wasted no time in doing so; Turner won the tip and Costanza immediately leaked out for a layup seconds into the game. Shortly after, Turner made a quick two on a putback to make it a 4-0 Riverside lead.

A Crowfield pull-up 3-pointer pushed the lead to 8-0 before McCoy made its first mark on the scoreboard via two Justin Thomas free throws. It didn’t slow Riverside, which chased its 8-0 run with an 11-0 run; Crowfield made a layup in transition to ignite it. Andrews and Cook each made two foul shots and Costanza canned a 3-pointer from the wing to make it 19-2.

McCoy (1-1) trailed 19-4 entering the second quarter.

The Lions opened the period by making a quick 7-0 run to cut the Rebel lead to eight, including two buckets by Jacob.

But the Lions committed two straight charging violations to slow its momentum before Riverside put things away.  Costanza and Andrews made back-to-back 3’s to push RA ahead 25-11.

Turner scored inside, then Crowfield made two free throws and followed his work at the line with a crowd-pleasing slam dunk in transition. Costanza capped the 15-0 run as he began it, with a 3-pointer, making it 34-11.

“I thought we shared the ball really well tonight,” said Costanza. “We didn’t always finish as well as we could have, but we did a good job making the extra pass and finding the open man.”

The Rebels led 40-11 at halftime.

Riverside returns to action at home Tuesday as it hosts Sophie B. Wright at 7 p.m.

�