EDINBURGH — Bryce Burton is listed as a guard in Edinburgh’s game program, but plays much larger than that.
The burly 6-foot senior was one of four Lancers in double-figures in Tuesday night’s season-opening 60-48 victory over visiting Southwestern (Shelby). Burton, who scored 12 points, finished as the game’s leading rebounder with eight.
Edinburgh led the entire game and has defeated the Spartans in 11 of the past 15 meetings.
“I played the ‘1’ a lot last year, but this year, they moved me over to the ‘2’ to create more shots for everybody,” Burton said. “And everybody’s got to rebound on our team. We all crash the boards hard.
“I was very happy with our game tonight. After our scrimmage (at Jac-Cen-Del), we had a few bumps in the road and I feel we worked hard this week. We knew coming in it was a big game, so we just played hard.”
Athletic senior forward Hunter Dean made his first varsity start and wound up leading all scorers with 16 points for the Lancers. Senior swingman Coltan Henderson knocked down their only two 3-pointers on his way to 15, while 6-5 center Jordan Myers added 12.
Second-year Edinburgh coach Keith Witty was pleased after watching his team outrebound the Spartans 29-21 and limit them to 35 percent shooting (17 of 49) from the field.
“I actually thought we got off to a slow start and kind of waited for that first bucket to get in. After that, I thought we were rolling pretty good,” Witty said. “We had a few letdowns in the second quarter that let them dig their way back in, but for game one, not too bad.”
The 6-foot Dean scored 10 of his points in the first half — mostly using his leaping ability for baskets in close — to lead the Lancers to a 31-16 halftime advantage.
“He’s got tremendous athletic ability and fits our group really well for what we have right now,” said Witty, whose club burned Southwestern for numerous backdoor layups the opening half. “With Coltan being such a decent shooter, he’s going to draw a lot of attention. We talked a lot over the last three days that if you’re screening for him, look for that backdoor option.”
Edinburgh jumped to a 7-0 lead to open the game and extended it to 12 after Henderson drained a triple from the left wing with 3:40 left in the opening period. The Lancers opened the second with a Burton jumper, Dean layup and a Burton free throw to move to a 21-9 lead with 4:44 left in the half.
