ISHPEMING — Junior Ty Alderton and seniors Nathan Beckman and Zach Niemi each had 10-point nights to lead the Westwood High School boys basketball team to a 47-19 season opening victory over L’Anse at the Patriots’ gym on Tuesday night.

The Patriots are now 1-0 on the season after jumping out to a 14-0 first quarter lead and never looking back.

Westwood head coach Chad Hewitt said his team came out aggressive on both sides of the ball, and also credited Niemi for containing one of L’Anse’s best players.

“I thought that we came out aggressively both offensively and defensively,” he said. “Defense is what we preach here and getting after people. I thought we did a really nice job of stopping dribble penetration and doing our best to limit them to one shot and how that shot needs to be contested.

“Zach Niemi held (L’Anse senior) Reese Waara to one point from the free throw line. That’s a tough matchup for anybody. He’s a good quick guard and I thought Zach did a really good job tonight.”

Hewitt added that while pleased with the performance, he hopes his team can sharpen up on the little things as the young season moves forward.

“You can always be a lot more crisp and talk a little better on defense,” he said. “Offensively, crisper with our cuts, crisper with our passes, rolling hard, boxing out. It’s just little things. They got the big stuff, it’s just about everybody on the floor doing the little things all the time. For our first game after just beating ourselves up in practice for the last two or three weeks, I was pretty happy.”

L’Anse head coach Kyle Koski credited Westwood’s experience and said his team needs a leader to emerge from it.

“Anytime we come to Westwood, they have an experienced team,” he said. “They’re physical and I try to tell my team that every time we come here. They box out very well and they’re disciplined, smart, fast and fundamental. I try to get my kids every day to go to the basket. We’ve got to get to the basket, we have some shooters this year who are able to stretch the floor, but I just need that clear leader we’re looking for.

“We’ll find some stuff on film to work with going forward.”

The game started with a layup from Alderton before senior forward Blake Hewitt hit a triple from the top of the arc to put Westwood up 5-0. Hewitt sunk two free throws shortly after that and another three from Beckman made it 10-0. Hewitt made another layup after that and two free throws from Niemi made it a 14-0 game.

The Purple Hornets finally got on the board on a layup from junior Terry Reed. Beckman hit one more jump shot to make it 18-2 at the end of the first.

L’Anse had the first points of the second on a basket from senior Alec Rajala to make it 18-4, but Westwood increased the lead from there, making three free throws, a 3-pointer from Beckman and a layup from senior forward Jacob Adriano to make it 28-4.

The Patriots took a 20-point lead into halftime at 28-8.

Westwood dropped 19 more points in the second half, while the Purple Hornets were held to 11 as the Patriots cruised to the win.

Hewitt added nine points for Westwood, while junior guard Mason Mariuzza had four.

Rajala led the Purple Hornets with six points while Reed, sophomore Alex Kissel and freshman Eli Ostermeyer added three points each.

Westwood was 12 of 16 from the charity stripe, while L’Anse was 4 of 12. Shooting and rebounding stats weren’t available.

Westwood hosts Houghton on Friday, while L’Anse hosts Hancock on Monday.