MAN – The Man High School boys’ basketball won its season opener on Tuesday night at the Man Memorial Fieldhouse with a 58-39 rout over the River View Raiders.

Seniors Seth Hainer and Jordan Simpson combined for 44 points to lead the Billies’ attack. Hainer got team high honors with 23 while all-stater Simpson netted 21.

Hainer jump-started Class A No. 9 Man with a 3-pointer to give MHS the early 3-0 lead with 6:49 showing on the clock.

River View then took the lead at 6-5 on a runner in the lane by Zack Dehaven with 4:36 to to. Hainer then hit another 3-ball to give the Billies a 8-6 advantage with 4:26 left as Man went on a 9-0 run to push the lead to 14-6 on a fast break basket by Simpson and two free throws each by Hainer and Simpson.

Man went on to take an 18-11 lead after the opening period.

The Raiders then went on a run of their own to knot the game at 19 at 4:18 of the second stanza on three baskets by Leshawn Benton.

Man would score the final eight points of the second quarter to take a 27-19 advantage into the locker room at the half.

Simpson scored on a floater in the lane and then hit two charity tosses while Kaleb Spurlock hit a turn around shot in the paint and Hainer added the final two points on two free tosses.

The Billies continued to run at the start of the second half of play, scoring the first six points to make it a 14-0 scoring spree and taking a commanding 33-19 lead on trey by Hainer and one free throw and two free throws by Simpson with 6:25 on the third period clock.

Bryan Church hit a 3-pointer for River View to cut the Man deficit to 10 points at 33-23 at the 5:01 mark.

Simpson later hit a 3-pointer and Cody Crum added a two-point goal to give MHS a 39-27 lead with 2:59 left.

The Billies would go on to take a 43-33 lead heading into the final period of play.

Spurlock and Simpson then hit key shots to open the fourth frame to push the MHS lead to 47-33 at the seven-minute mark.

Benton then hit two baskets for River View to make it 47-37 with 4:23 to play in the game.

The Billies would then pull away from the Raiders on three-point play by Spurlock and a couple of buckets by Hainer and Simpson, giving Man a commanding 15-point lead with just over three minutes to play.

The Billies then put the game on ice with two more baskets by Simpson to take a 19-point cushion with just 1:42 to play as Man coach Harvey Arms called time out and cleared the bench with his subs.

“For the first game of season it was good,” Arms said. “We played aggressive on defense, we had our up and downs on offense, but for the fact that we played aggressive on defense and we got some good play off the bench in Robert Caudill, Dakota Toth and freshman Gage Harvey, overall we played well. We still have a long way to go, but for the first game it was a good outing.”

Spurlock added seven points for Man. Crum had three and Robert Caudill and Gage Harvey had two each.

Benton paced River View with 15 points and 19 rebounds. Dehaven netted nine, Chad Franklin six, hurch five and Zack Morgan and Trey Lockhart two points each.

Man is scheduled to return to action on Thursday night at home against the Mount View Golden Knights.

Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m. at the Man Memorial Fieldhouse.