An early-season defeat to Bishop Grimes in the Dec. 4 Peppino’s Invitational showed that the Westhill boys basketball team, with so many new faces in its lineup, was far from the dominant unit that roared to back-to-back state Class B titles the previous two seasons.

However, the Warriors haven’t fallen all the way back to the pack, as it demonstrated in last Tuesday night’s home opener, when it took on another title challenger, Syracuse Academy of Science, and led by Ryan Roland and Chase Gedney, produced a 68-60 victory over the Atoms.

SAS was playing in its season opener, and still remembered that Westhill had beaten them in last March’s Section III Class B final at SRC Arena. That, plus a solid core of returning talent, helped the Atoms make a spirited effort to upend the Warriors.

Neither side could get away in the first half, with SAS inching in front and taking a slim 29-28 lead to the break. As the game wore on, though, Westhill heavily leaned on its most proven players, Roland and Gedney, who helped the hosts take the lead in the third quarter and hang on against the Atoms’ late charges.

Roland drained five 3-pointers, plus 10 successful free throws, on his way to 33 points, adding three rebounds and four assists. Gedney, beginning to establish the kind of inside presence the Warriors enjoyed with Tyler Reynolds in the paint, set a career mark with 22 points and piled up 13 rebounds, too.

That two-man show proved enough, Westhill not having any other player score more than Owen Matukas, who had five points. For SAS, Jessie Murray, with 20 points, and Symir Torrence, with 17 points, led the way, with Nessiah Smith (eight points) and Noreon Williams (six points) helping out.

Contrasting that game was the rout Bishop Ludden put together in its OHSL Freedom division opener at Phoenix last Wednesday night, an 89-17 victory that was one of the most lopsided in the program’s rich history.

Over the course of the first three periods, the Gaelic Knights, fresh off beating host Henninger in that same Peppino’s Invitational on Dec. 4, built a 72-11 lead, which allowed the entire lineup to see extended minutes.

Remarkably, nine different Ludden players had seven or more points, and none more than the 14 put up by Mika Adams-Woods. Matt McGinn and Ed Walser each got 10 points, with Joe Connors, Matt Hosek, Jim Grabowski, Sh’ikem Lee and E.J. Zawadzki earning eight points apiece. Will Engelhardt contributed seven points.

Not until Friday did Ludden get to play on its home court for the first time this season. Homer was the guest, but while the Gaelic Knights played without Adams-Woods in the lineup, it did more than enough to turn back the Trojans 66-51,

Instead of falling apart after Ludden took an 18-9 first-quarter lead, Homer ate into that deficit, only trailing by seven, 30-23, at the break. Ultimately, the Trojans put Jerrad Reiner (15 points), Jacob Rivers (11 points) and Stephen Walter (10 points) in double figures, but could not get the sustained run it needed to make the Gaelic Knights nervous at the end.

At the same time, Ludden’s attack proved that it could work just fine in Adams-Woods’ absence. Grabowski’s four 3-pointers led to a team-high 18 points, while Chris Allen produced 16 points, a career high. Connor added 13 points as Jack Allen got 10 points and Monte Johnson finished with seven points.

Unlike Ludden, Westhill was at full strength when it handled Hannibal 70-36 on Friday night.

Finally getting a relative breather, Westhill saw 10 different players net at least one point in this Warrior clash, with Roland getting 17 points and Sean Dadey adding 10 points. John Geer and Kameren Jackson had nine points apiece as Matukas got seven points and David Straughter earned six points.