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CASSOPOLIS — With such a young basketball team, Cassopolis head boys’ basketball coach Charles Superczynski II knows his Rangers are going to endure some growing pains early on this season. 

After struggling most of the first half, Cassopolis used a big second-half to pull away and bury visiting non-league foe Bangor 71-48 Friday in the Rangers’ home opener. 

Cassopolis, now 2-1, broke open a close game at halftime by outscoring Bangor 42-25 in the second half in cruising to the lopsided win. 

The Rangers, who have no seniors on their roster, entered the locker room at intermission clinging to a six-point (29-23) advantage. 

Despite his team’s slow start, Superczynski II was pleased with his team’s effort, especially in the final two quarters. 

“Right now we are a little too cool and lackadaisical to start the game. Our kids have to learn how to match the intensity they played with in the second half over the entire game. I explained to the kids if we don’t do that a lot of teams are going to stay with us or blow us out,” Superczynski II said. “We flipped the switch in the final half and played better defensively.”

Sophomore guard Lucas Williams scored 11 of his game-high 26 points for the Rangers in the third quarter to help his squad outscore the Vikings 15-11 and build itself a 44-34 cushion entering the fourth stanza. Williams drained three of his four three-pointers during that sparn as well.  

Cassopolis put the contest away by outscoring Bangor 27-14 in the fourth quarter. Williams scored eight points during the final period, while freshman Tyson West added six points and Trevon-Peterson Evans and Ayden Gilliam added five apiece. 

Joining Williams in double-digit scoring were West with 15 points, Peterson-Evans scored 13, Peterson-Evans chipped in nine and Aaren Buck-Hooper added five. 

Cassopolis made 27 field-goal attempts, including nine triples, and made 8-of-12 free-throw attempts. 

West also pulled down a team-high 15 rebounds for the Rangers. Gilliam added seven boards and six steals. Williams added four boards and five steals. Peterson-Evans also added four rebounds, four assists and five steals. 

“Tyson gave us a huge boost with his rebounding because we’ve been struggling on the boards. He came in and decided he was going to rebound and it was a huge spark for us,” Superczynski said.  

Bangor was led in the scoring column by Tyler Caruso with 17. Julian Pullins added 13 followed by Carson Pillins with nine and Jarret McCoy finished with six. 

The Vikings made a total of 15 field-goal attempts, including five triples, and made 13-of-23 free-throw attempts.

Cassopolis won the rebounding battle 39-23.  

A Jonah Luter triple put Bangor up 8-5 midway through the opening period. A putback by West helped Cassopolis knot the score at 11-11. Bangor, however, got an old-fashioned three-point play from Caruso to lead the Rangers 16-14 entering the second quarter. 

West scored five points and Cassopolis got triples from Gillam and Williams in the second stanza in helping the Rangers to a 29-23 halftime advantage. 

“At halftime we explained to the kids that we have to work really hard to achieve the things we want to achieve this season. We aren’t goint to have things handed to us just because we are Cassopolis. We gave to really strive to get better,” Superczynski said. 

Cassopolis’ head coach likes what he’s seen out of Williams and the rest of his group of guards. 

“We have solid guards and alot of good shooters. We can be a good team if we can settle down and play good defense. I like that we are so young, but we have to be able to get after people right away and not just when it matters the most,” Superczynski said.