It may not have been the way Edgewood had imagined christening its new gym at Edgewood High School, but the images of possible wins were one of the things that helped drive Hamilton junior Christian Jones through those 8 a.m. weight-lifting sessions in the summer.

“It felt that good,” Jones said after leading the Big Blue to a 78-38 win in both team’s openers. “We have been working very hard, it is nice that it paid off. We have been counting down to November 30. We were ready to go.”

And, the Big Blue was ready to go early.

After the Cougars took their only lead of the night, 4-3 with 5:26 left in the opening quarter on a basket by Austin Farler, the Hamilton defense took over to spark a 21-1 run over the next 7:11 that blew the game open.

“These kids like playing pressure defense,” Hamilton coach Tim Robinson said. “So, we turned up the pressure.”

Hamilton forced 17 first half turnovers and pressured the Cougars into hitting just 4-of-20 shots from the floor in taking a 45-13 lead. Jones led the way with 13 first half points to go with three steals, five assists and five rebounds.

“It was a great environment, but I think we came out a little nervous,” Edgewood coach Aaron Horne said. “We knew they would come after us. It was something we worked hard on in practice, but I don’t think we were able to completely duplicate their type of pressure.”

Hamilton pushed the lead to 40 at 59-19 with 1:04 left in the third quarter on a three-point play by Marcus Oliver to put any comeback hopes by the Cougars away.

Tyler Denton added 11 points, Ryan Robinson 10 and Jimmy Reed nine as Hamilton placed 12 in the scorebook. Mason Back led Edgewood with nine points.

While he was a little uneasy about back-to-back games to begin the season at first, Robinson is happy to have tonight’s home opener with Springfield on the schedule now.

“I told them to enjoy it until they went to bed and then to turn the focus to Springfield,” Robinson said. “It is good to get a win, and I am glad now that we play (tonight).”