The slogan on the back of the Panther Valley’s boys basketball team’s warm-up shirts speaks volumes.

All grit. No quit.

The Panthers delivered a performance worthy of their mantra on Friday night, rolling to a 66-51 victory over rival Marian in their season opener.

“Great way to start the season,” said Panther Valley head coach Pat Crampsie. “Super proud of our guys. As I was just telling them, it was 100%, a total team effort. Totally unselfish. I thought our ball movement was great, and our guys were confident, knocking down shots.

“Defensively, I loved our half court defense. I thought our half court defense was fantastic. That was a point of emphasis. A lot of their points (Marian’s) came off our turnovers, some in the backcourt; we got a little lazy at times with some passes coming off defensive rebounds. But defensively in the half court set, I thought we did great. And offensively, when we move the ball like that, we can do some good things.”

It was all clicking early for the Panthers (1-0), who hit six of their 13 three-pointers in the first quarter to build a 22-7 advantage.

“It’s a veteran team. Coach Crampsie does a phenomenal job, and they knocked shots down,” said Colts’ head coach Scott Murphy. “And we didn’t do a very good job of challenging those shots early on, so they were able to get open looks, and if you give good shooters open looks, they’re going to knock them down.

“We wanted to come out and try to establish ourselves in a man-to-man setting, and they did a great job of taking us out of it, so that’s a credit to them. We had breakdowns, but also, they caused a lot of those. They’re a tough match-up with their size and their shooting ability. Their guard play is excellent, they’re very composed. They’re going to be poised to have a very big year.”

With the Black Hole rocking early, Panther Valley couldn’t have asked for a better start to seize momentum of the game.

Holding a 32-19 advantage at halftime, the Panthers put their foot on the gas again in the third quarter, outscoring the Colts 23-10 to build a 55-29 lead heading to the final period.

Their biggest lead came after a basket from Chase Weaver made it 63-33 with a little over 5:30 to play in the fourth quarter.

Stephen Hood paced Panther Valley with 25 points, hitting three 3s. Bradley Hood buried five treys for his 15 points, and Drew Kokinda ripped three 3s and finished with 11 points.

“Tonight’s like a playoff game for us, playing Marian is always a great atmosphere,” said Stephen Hood. “Everyone from the whole area comes here and both teams have good student sections. So being able to open up with a win like that is really big for us.

“And once shots start falling early, that gets us really hyped up and we have great energy on the defensive end, too. When we’re making shots, we’re a dangerous team. Our strength is usually offense, so when we’re also playing good defense, that’s when we’re a tough team to beat.”

Frank Valente led the Colts (0-1) with 13 points, while Julius Currie - who hit three 3s - finished with 11 points.

“It’s tough when you get down early, and you’re trying to play catch up and you’re constantly trying to get back in the game,” said Murphy. “It almost seems like we were trying to get it back in one possession. So that’s something we need to work on, and we need to work on being able to grind people down. Once you get down so many, you’ve got to kind of push and look to go if you’re going to get back in the game.

“So they took us out of what we wanted to do early, and then we were obviously playing uphill from there.”

Panther Valley was locked in to start the game and out of the locker room to start the second half.

“Once we got that lead, our guys did a very good job of not forcing shots,” said Crampsie. “They really took what they gave us. They were very aggressive on the perimeter, we had a lot of guys that did a good job of getting into the lane and forcing help defense getting kick-outs, and open looks, and also getting kick-outs and I thought we made the extra pass a lot tonight. Obviously we shot the ball well, but a lot of that was because of our passing.”

KNOCKING THEM DOWN

... Panther Valley went 6-for-8 from three-point range in the first quarter, and hit 5-of-8 from deep in the third period.

MARIAN

Ramirez 3-2-2-8, Miller 1-0-0-2, Chambers 2-3-3-7, Thomas 0-0-0-0, Je. Rodino 2-0-0-4, Bobish 0-0-0-0, Ferrera 0-0-0-0, Walko 2-0-0-4, Currie 4-0-0-11, Valente 4-4-4-13, Ja. Rodino 1-0-0-2, Hopeck 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 19-9-9-51.

PANTHER VALLEY

B. Hood 5-0-0-15, Pascoe 1-0-0-2, S. Hood 7-4-4-25, Kokinda 4-0-0-11, Weaver 3-1-1-8, Hadley 1-1-2-3, Hoben 0-0-0-0, McAndrew 0-0-0-0, Orsulak 1-0-0-2, Gardiner 0-1-2-1, Goida 0-0-0-0, Buyce 1-0-0-3, Maynard 0-0-0-0, Fisher 0-0-0-0-, Breiner 0-0-0-0, Jones 0-0-0-0, Penberth 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 23-7-9-66.

Marian 7 12 10 22 - 51

Panther Vy. 22 10 23 11 - 66

Three-pointers: Marian - Currie 3, Valente 1; Panther Valley - B. Hood 5, S. Hoood, 3, Kokinda 3, Weaver 1, Buyce 1.