RIVER FALLS — It was not perfect basketball for the River Falls boys in their season opener against Mahtomedi, yet they found a way to win through effort 62-56 Friday.

The Wildcats burst out of the gates with a 9-2 run with buckets from four separate players, and Mahtomedi immediately countered with a 10-0 run of their own to make it 12-9.

River Falls grinded out the rest of the half, building up a 30-25 lead despite adversity including a technical foul from center Eli Johnson. The Wildcats opened the second half with a 6-0 run and while the lead varied for the rest of the game, it never got within a single possession again.

“I was really happy with the energy,” Head Coach Zach Turpin said. “It’s kind of that first game thing, you’re going to make some mistakes, but I thought our kids, when they made the mistakes, they had that mentality to move onto the next play.”

The runs, especially in the early going, stood out, to which Turpin said serves as a warning to stay fully locked in for the entirety of the game.

“That’s high school basketball. If you lay off for a second, and they’re a very talented team that have good shooters, it can get close really, really quick,” Turpin said.

River Falls’ win was the first for Turpin as the team’s head coach. He said whether you are a player, assistant coach or head coach, winning all feels the same.

“Once you’ve done it before, once the game ball went up it felt normal,” Turpin said.

Statistically, it was junior Brody Graetz leading the way with 23 points. Although Graetz did not have his best shooting night at 5-14, he took the ball to the rack and drew fouls all game long. Graetz went 11-15 from the free throw line, nearly matching Mahtomedi’s entire team attempts of 17.

“Brody’s been solid for us,” Turpin said. “I thought he had a nice game, made some good decisions, played on balance for the most part. He’s a kid we have to rely on because he’s got the returning experience.”

Preston Johnson also made his presence felt, finishing with 14 points and seven assists.

“I was happy with the minutes that all our guys gave us tonight,” Turpin said. “Us as a staff too, kind of learning where guys are going to give us the best run.”

The Wildcats are still finding themselves as they are just a game into the season, but they do know what it will take to get there.

“You build your identity as the year goes,” Turpin said. “We know what we would like our identity to be. I think we want to play solid defense and go out and learn things. Like I said, I think you build that with consistency over time.”

River Falls dives right into conference play in their second game, hosting Menomonie on Dec. 10. As much as it can be tempting to look around the conference to see what other teams are doing, Turpin said if they want to start conference play on the right foot, they have to focus on what they can improve on.