RALEIGH - If Garner’s debut performance was any indication, the Trojans might be ready to pick up where they left off last season.

Dominique Reed led the charge with 18 points and eight rebounds as the Trojans walloped Athens Drive 71-50 in the season boys’ basketball opener for both teams Monday night.

Eddie Gray’s Trojans went 26-1 last season and won the championship of the Greater Neuse River 4-A. Garner was playing without three players on the roster – Brayden Simms, Anthony Tucker and Gavin Wilson – who were with the football team preparing for their Eastern 4A championship game with Jack Britt on Friday night.

“We’ve got a very young team in terms of playing experience,” said Gray, who doubles as the football team’s offensive coordinator. “We lost our leading scorer, our leading rebounder and our point guard to graduation.

“We made more mistakes than we liked tonight, but we found a way to win the ball game. We had a good effort, and everything we did wrong is correctable.”

Larry Richardson added 17 points and Josh McClain 11 for Garner, which got 13 assists from point guard Demarcus Sanford.

“We played pretty well, but we made a couple of mistakes,” Reed said. “We’ve got to cut down on our turnovers. But we were pretty aggressive coming out for our first game. We went straight at them and didn’t let up.”

Mike Estes, who missed all of last season with an ankle injury from football, had 12 points followed by Dylan Haupt with 11 and Jon Hodge 10 for the Jaguars.

“We competed well in spurts,” said veteran Athens coach Robert Clemons, whose team finished last in the conference last season with a 3-21 mark. “We didn’t start off very well, but after we got going we were better. We just need more consistency.”

Garner, which never trailed, took an 11-2 lead on Reed’s slam dunk from Sanford with the 6-5 center drawing a foul and adding the free throw.

The Trojans were up 36-27 at halftime.

“I thought we played well, but we can play a lot better,” Richardson said. “We practice a lot on getting down the open court and running. We’re a pretty athletic team. If we keep working hard, I think we can be better than last year.”

Garner led 52-37 after three periods.

“I’m just glad to be back playing after a whole year,” Estes said. “I was ready to play. Garner’s a really good team. I think they just had the athletic edge over us.”