Neshannock rolled up 35 first-quarter points and breezed to a 98-42 win over Saegertown in the opening round of the Neshannock Holiday Tournament.

Neshannock (7-1) held a 35-18 buffer at the first period and 62-26 at the break.

“Offensively, we played really well in the first quarter,” Lancers coach John Corey said. “But we played like garbage in the first quarter defensively.

“We gave up a lot of easy buckets in the first quarter. It wasn’t like they aren’t atheltic enough. They just weren’t doing it (defensively). They had a bit of a wake-up defensively.”

Ernie Burkes paced a balanced attack for Neshannock with 21 points, 11 coming in the first quarter. Matt McKinney was next with 19 markers, including eight in the opening quarter. Ethan Moose followed with 17 points and Ty Haswell notched 12 markers and six boards.

“We preached the balance all year long,” Corey said. “A lot of schools have a couple of good players. We’re really happy with our team. That’s what it’s going to take for us to be good.

“We’ll have to play well together and we’ll have to contribute together.”

Neshannock was 35 of 61 from the field.

“Obviously, the high percentage is because we got a lot of the buckets,” Corey said. “But that’s what we want to do is get easy buckets.

“All around, it was a good performance.”