It turned out to be Carson Lowe’s night on Friday, though.
Lowe cashed in a career-high 18 points to help the Rams beat the Edgewood Cougars 50-38 in a season opener at Ron Kash Court.
“We’ve been working really hard in practice, making sure we get our shots up — making sure everything is flowing with the offense,” said Lowe, a junior guard. “My boys just found me open.
“I knew I wanted to start off hot. I didn’t want to take too long to get going. I know my team needed me to get hot right away.”
Badin (1-0) scored the game’s first 10 points and held Edgewood (0-1) scoreless through more than half of the opening quarter.
The Rams led 22-3 before taking a 25-9 advantage into the half.
Edgewood junior Amir Cannedy had a steal and breakaway dunk that cut the Badin lead to 36-28 with 6:31 left to play, but the Rams called a timeout to halt the host’s momentum.
Badin went on a 7-0 run before closing the game out.
“First off, hats off to Badin,” Cougars coach Jason Osterman said. “They played a great game. They played so hard. We knew that coming in. They’re physical. They just play with such amount of good energy. I think we didn’t respond well to it in the first half — kind of got to us a little bit.
“We’ve got some inexperienced guys, but I’m proud of the way we responded in the second half. We played really hard in the second half. We knocked down some shots, which was good to see.”
Eli Stroud had nine points for Badin, which shot 15 of 33 (45%) from the floor.
“Tale of two halves for sure,” Fleming said. “Came out and executed well in the first half being super ball-pressure heavy, on the ball having high-active hands. Second half, they got a little bit more aggressive, so credit to them.
“Executing from start to finish is going to be a main focal point, and being able to sustain that high level of defense is difficult. But it’s something that we’re looking towards and striving towards.”
Fleming said when he had to go to the bench, everyone contributed. That was especially the case after junior starting forward Chandler Taylor went down with an injury in the first quarter.
“He’s getting checked out tonight, and we’ll go from there,” Fleming said.
Kale Reynolds had 11 points and Keegan Sullivan had 10 to pace Edgewood, which shot 13 of 34 (38%) on the night.
“We stopped turning the ball over so much,” Osterman said. “I think we had 15 turnovers in the first half. That’s 15 opportunities that we don’t have to score. So, I’m proud of how our guys battled back in the second half.”
Osterman said his Cougars are moving on to prep for two big Southwestern Buckeye League opponents this coming week against Oakwood on Tuesday and Bellbrook on Friday.
“Both are on the road in tough environments,” Osterman said. “So, we’re excited.”
Badin — which has two seniors, nine juniors and a freshman on its roster — hosts Bellbrook on Tuesday.
“Roles aren’t defined just yet,” Fleming said. “You have new guys coming together, yet we’ve had scrimmages and a month of practice. But when the lights come on, it’s a different deal seeing how guys with no varsity experience, how they perform — some of those jitters and simple mistakes and watching them grow.
“It’s night one, and if you remember last year, we’re sitting here after getting blown out by Fenwick. So, we’ll take this. But we’ve got to be ready to go on Tuesday night for Bellbrook.”
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