NORTH MANCHESTER - Although it was only the season opener for them, the Manchester Squires looked like a well-oiled machine in running a motion offense that kept the Maconaquah Braves off balance for most of the evening.

Despite being without their two starting guards for most of the first half, the Squires patiently waited for an opening and then attacked in building a 15-point halftime lead and cruising to a 59-52 victory on Wednesday.

Jonathan Price and Rex Reimer both sat on the bench for some of the first quarter and the entire second quarter with foul trouble, but it made no difference. Michael Hendrix and Heath Simcoe came off the bench in the second period and sparked the Squires to a large lead after a fairly even first quarter.

Maconaquah opened up a 6-0 lead midway through the first quarter, but Simcoe converted on a three-point play and then knocked down a three-pointer as Manchester took an 8-6 lead that the Squires would never relinquish.

"When we were down 6-0 we didn't panic," Manchester head coach Gary Goshert said. "We finally got a hoop and broke the ice and then we regained the lead pretty quick."

The Braves were ranked in the latest Associated Press poll at No. 7 in Class 2A. Manchester had received honorable mention votes.

Manchester went into the second quarter with a 12-8 lead, but Reimer and Price each had two fouls.

The Braves closed to 14-12 after Blake Betzner scored on a layup, but then Manchester scored seven straight points, five from Hendrix, to move out to a nine-point lead. The Squires closed the quarter with six straight points for a 31-16 halftime lead.

"I thought Hendrix and Simcoe both did excellent jobs in that second quarter, both defensively and offensively," Goshert said. "I thought we executed offensively against their zone pretty well. We scored in the paint and we scored from the perimeter, so that was a big quarter for us."

Tim Maiben opened the third quarter for Maconaquah by knocking down a three-pointer to cut the lead to 12, but Manchester went on another run with nine consecutive points to open up a 40-21 advantage and headed to the fourth period with a 44-27 lead.

"In the third quarter, we exploited some things and got some pretty good control," Goshert said. "Rex came in in that second half after not playing very much in the first half and showed a lot of patience and ball movement and was under control. We had some good steady performances throughout the third quarter."

In the final eight minutes, Maiben canned three three-pointers and Nick Maple added two more as the Braves cut into the lead, but they were too far behind at that point to do any damage.

"We executed an out of bounds play that just clicked, but then right after that play two times we didn't get back on defense," Goshert said. "We charged, we made another turnover, we didn't get to a couple of shooters. We've got to keep our intensity."

Chris Enyeart quietly played a solid game and led Manchester with 15 points and four rebounds. Reimer added 12 points and Simcoe had 10 more. Tim Maiben led Maconaquah with 16 points on four three-pointers.

Manchester (1-0) will host Wabash on Saturday at 8 p.m. [[In-content Ad]]