By JASON KING
Leader sportswriter
ROSE BUD — Riverview’s 2-3A Conference opener wasn’t much of a fight as the Raiders clobbered Rose Bud 62-27 at Rambler Arena on Tuesday.
Senior point guard Keinan Lee made six of seven three-point attempts in the first half for all of his game-high 18 points. Senior post player D.J. Teague, 6-7, dominated the inside and scored 10 points as the Raiders (11-3, 1-0) built a 52-14, halftime lead.
Rose Bud (1-8, 0-1) kept it close for the first three minutes before Riverview ended the first quarter, and any suspense, with a 26-1 run.
The Ramblers took their only lead with 5:58 left in the first half when Joe Dalrymple hit the back end of a two-shot foul to make it 6-5 Rose Bud.
The lead was short lived as Riverview senior guard Taylor Smith hit a pair of free throws. Lee then hit his second three-pointer to extend the lead to 10-6.
“I think our guys knew the tradition that Rose Bud has,” Riverview coach Jon Laffoon said. “They jumped on us there early and got up 6-5. I didn’t like the way we started, but we’ve got some good seniors, and we picked it up and got after it the way we should.”
Smith and Teague scored inside and Desmond Pettis and Lee made three pointers to push the lead to 22-8 with 1:24 left in the first.
“He’s a senior, but he’s as good a shooter as I’ve ever been around,” Laffoon said of Lee. “When teams play us zone, our kids know to look for him. They were packing it in on D.J., three, four guys around him every time we reversed the ball, so Keinan stepped up and separated us there.”
Lee returned to his favorite spot in the left corner again in the second quarter and hit another three-point basket with 5:03 to go in the half to give the Raiders a 38-9 lead, and he wrapped up his scoring with a sixth three-pointer less than a minute later.
“Riverview’s good,” Rose Bud coach Matt Porter said. “Very athletic; they shot us out of our zone, basically. We let Keinan get going, and we quit offensive rebounding, and that gave them the momentum they needed.
“I felt like the first six minutes of the game, we played very good and ran our system perfectly. It was close, then they hit a couple of big threes and we gave up a couple of offensive rebounds that gave them all the momentum.”
Lee assisted Teague on an inside shot to start the second half, and the reserves played out the remainder. Pettis finished with eight points for Riverview while Smith took few shots and scored six points.
“They can all get to the basket,” Laffoon said. “Then we have Keinan shooting it outside and D.J. posting it inside, so when we’re hitting shots, and we play as well as we did tonight, we’re tough.”
A continuous clock was used for the entire second half because of the big lead and officials who were anxious to watch the Arkansas Razorbacks take on Ohio State in the Sugar Bowl, but Laffoon said he doesn’t expect the rest of the conference schedule to be as easy.
“Barton has four returning starters, all seniors,” Laffoon said. “I’ve gotten a film or two on them, and they’re loaded. Harding Academy is as good as anybody in the state.
“They can play with anybody — disciplined, well executing, well coached. I feel good about our kids, but it’s going to be a tough fight all conference season long.”
Rose Bud 53, Riverview 30
The Lady Ramblers (14-0) took an easy victory fueled by Tori Willborg’s game-high 21 points, while Kyndl Horton scored 15, all on three-pointers, and Lauren Wynne had 10.
Meg Meachum led the Lady Raiders with 12 points while seniors Queen Banks and Ashanti Baker each had nine.
