ORFORD — A year ago, the Rivendell Academy boys basketball team started its season 0-7. The Raptors didn’t wait nearly as long to get their first victory of the 2019-20 season.
Kyle Carter knocked down seven 3-pointers and finished with 28 points and Zach Gould scored 16 as Rivendell cruised to a 66-43 win over visiting Oxbow (0-1) on Saturday. The Olympians were paced by Bryce Ilsley’s 21 points.
It’s the first time the Raptors’ senior class have ever won a season opener.
“For them it was special. It was Oxbow, it was at home, it was a good win,” said second-year Rivendell coach Ross Convertino. “The seniors feel really good about it; it’s one that they really wanted. They’ve worked so hard in their other three years that now, going into their fourth year, it’s time to see the fruits of their labor.”
After holding a two-point lead at the half, the Raptors outscored the O’s, 25-5, in the third quarter and 44-23 in the second half.
Carter, who only had eight points at the half, scored 14 of Rivendell’s 25 in the third. The sophomore started off with a jumper followed by two 3-pointers. His highlight from the quarter wasn’t a deep 3 or a fast-break layup but a forced turnover that he dished out on a bounce pass to Gould, who easily finished with a layup.
“At the end of the first half we all felt that we could do a little bit better,” Gould said. “We were executing plays, but it was just finishing them. In the third quarter, we just came out and did everything we wanted to.”
Rivendell opened the game on a 7-0 run thanks to four points from Gould and a 3-pointer from Carter.
But in the second quarter, Oxbow clawed back into the game.
With 4:07 to play until the break, Trevor Moore made a free throw and, more than a minute later, Ilsley knocked down a 3 to cut the deficit to 16-13.
When the Raptors stretched their lead back to seven, the O’s ended the quarter on a 7-2 run: Moore hit a 3-pointer, and Dylan Shaw and Dan Sweet hit jumpers.
“I think they were more athletic than us and we weren’t prepared for that,” sixth-year Oxbow coach Steven Carson said. “They killed us on the boards, we didn’t execute and we didn’t box out. Their athleticism was just a problem.”
The O’s were without upperclassmen Aaron Thurston and Jace Page, who sat out due to injury, leaving their bench short. The short bench caught up with them in the second half when Hunter Locke and Cooper Simmons both fouled out.
“Foul trouble shouldn’t be such a problem moving forward,” Carson said. “But the Carter kid burying 3s, if you get a kid get that hot, and most of those 3s there was a hand in his face, he was just shooting lights out.”
While Convertino was pleased with the performance from his four-man senior class, he also knows that a lot of what Rivendell will be able to do this season lies with the underclassmen. The Raptors’ roster includes three freshmen and four sophomores. The goal of last season was establishing the program’s culture. The second half of it proved that the culture could work — the Raptors won eight of their last 12 games and won a playoff game.
Gould’s finger injury in late December, which sidelined him for over a month, was also a factor in the 0-7 start.
Now, Rivendell’s goal is to improve on the 1-0 start to this season.
“We’re really going to go as far as we can go deep,” Convertino said.
“When those guys start to come along, we can start to go nine or 10 guys deep, which is huge for how we want to play. They have a ton of potential.”
Notes: Convertino said he scratched Rivendell’s man-to-man offense four days ago and put something completely new in. The Raptors host Thetford on Tuesday. … Oxbow won both meetings last season. The O’s welcome Twinfield to Bradford on Tuesday. … The Raptors and Olympians meet again at Oxbow on Dec. 28.
Pete Nakos can be reached at pnakos@vnews.com.