It has been an up-and-down season for the young Hamilton Christian boys basketball team, but the Warriors are starting to put it together. They won their third consecutive game Tuesday and opened District 4-1A play with a 78-32 rout of Oberlin.

Hamilton started the season 7-1 before losing four of six games over four weeks.

“It’s been a really strange season for us,” Hamilton Christian head coach Dexter Washington said. “Our roster got depleted because of a lot of people leaving and going to different places.

“What we’ve done is we’ve tried to put together a bunch of younger kids and tried to teach the defensive players. It’s almost like starting over. I have maybe two kids, three kids, that have real varsity experience. Now, as far as us competing against anybody, we’re going to compete. We’re going to coach them up.”

The Warriors are coming off their sixth semifinal appearance in the last eight seasons.

Despite only one senior consistently in the starting lineup in Seth Ned, the Warriors are 11-5 and ranked sixth in the unofficial Louisiana High School Athletic Association Select Division IV power rankings.

“You know, I can see it coming, but I think it will be a year away,” Washington said. “If somebody would have told me this group would have been 11-5 at this time, I wouldn’t believe them.”

While Ned scored 22 points and grabbed nine rebounds, 48 of the Warriors’ points were scored by sophomores led by forward Justin West, who had 22 points and nine rebounds.

“I’m playing a bunch of them younger kids. They’re starting to get it. Justin has really been the energizer for this team. He has been the guy.”

Sophomores Christopher Rideau and Javon Vital have been big contributors. Rideau scored 11 points Tuesday, and Vital finished with eight points, three assists and three rebounds.

“Of course, you are always going to have a chance when you’ve got a Javon Vital on the board, no matter what,” Washington said. “We’re just looking for (Christopher Rideau) to really, really, really get more offensively aggressive.

“If the light switch ever turns on for Chris, we’re going to be pretty good in 1A, in our division. I’m proud of him. He has worked hard.”

Defensively, the Warriors held Oberlin to 25 percent shooting and forced 22 turnovers. They held the Tigers to five points in the fourth quarter. Hamilton won the boards with a sizeable 36-20 advantage. Despite the success, Washington feels the Warriors can do better on defense.

“There’s a couple of things that we’re not doing that we’ve got to do to help us win, and that’s take charges,” Washington said. “We begin to take charges because we’re not very big.

“But even not being big, we’ll get in there, and we’ll rebound with the guys. We’ve got to be able to get our charge game up, and we’ve got to get more in the passing lanes and get a few more of those steals.”

Oberlin (0-19, 0-1) scored the first points of the game on two free throws by Jayden Bokemeyer, but the Warriors surged to a 21-9 lead by the end of the quarter led by nine points from Rideau.

Oberlin scored the first points of the second half as well on a three by Gabriel Wiseman. Like the first quarter, the Warriors responded with a barrage of scoring. They went on a 15-0 run to solidify their lead.