The new guards took care of the basketball. The frontcourt won the rebound battle. And the pressure defense stayed from start to finish.
But what St. Frances boys basketball first-year coach Nick Myles was most impressed following his No. 3 Panthers' 72-62 season-opening win at Calvert Hall on Friday was the collective effort he saw from his first player to last.
"I was very impressed with our overall team effort -- we got contributions from everybody," he said. "It was our first game and the energy off the bench was big. We got maximum effort. You can see that everybody likes each other, everybody was supporting each other and that's so important when you play on the road."
Tevon Saddler, a transfer guard from Aberdeen, and Mike Warren each scored a game-high 17 points and senior point guard Daquan Cook, who played at Digital Harbor last year, finished with 10 and showed strong floor leadership.
The Panthers will host Mount Carmel at 7 p.m. tonight and then have a big showdown at No. 2 Mount St. Joseph set for Friday.