Michael  Pleasant is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover St. Mary's High School for AZPreps365.

The Saint Mary’s basketball team improved to 2-0 after an 80-44 victory over Seton Catholic Prep Tuesday night.

It was the season opener for the Sentinels, who were missing four starters.

The Knights, who jumped out to an early 13-0 lead behind their stifling defense, dictated the pace of the game throughout the night.

Seton coach Commander King said that the Knights did a solid job pressuring his team and that his young players will need to adjust to the physicality of the game.

“They did a really good job with their pressure,” King said. “We are playing a lot of young guys who are not used to the speed and length…Our kids are learning.”

The pressure applied by the Knights' half-court trap defense is something that head coach Damin Lopez also noticed. “I thought we competed hard,” Lopez said.

With both teams having a lot of younger players getting minutes, Lopez said his staff does not do much research on opponents this early in the season.

 “We don’t focus in on other teams right now,” Lopez said. “At the beginning of the year we don’t really scout teams…We just worry about ourselves.”

In taking this approach the Knights were able to find a groove on the offensive end to the tune of 13 made three-pointers. They were able to penetrate the teeth of the defense and kick it out to their shooters.

Junior guard Keiren Brown led Saint Mary's with six made threes and finished with 24 points.

Getting into the paint and kicking out to shooters on offense was something both coaches thought worked well for their teams. 

“We have always been a team that likes to get into the paint and let the defense help, then hit the open man,” King said. "Going into halftime we had a bunch of turnovers where guys were not being decisive."

Lopez said his team is a fast-pace team that wants to get up and down the court and shoot perimeter shots.

“We are an up-tempo team,” Lopez said. “We like to get into the lane and punch out to shooters that can hit the shot. We are going to have nights where we are hitting shots.”

Seton's next game is Thursday at home against Cactus.

Saint Mary’s will play at Combs on Thursday.