Williamstown's Tyler Keiser goes up for a lay-in as Ravenswood's Brooks Wolfe defends during the Yellowjackets' 83-35 victory Wednesday night. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

WILLIAMSTOWN — Caleb Atkinson drained a pair of charity stripe tosses with the first quarter clock reading 8:00 and the Williamstown freshman went for a game-high 18 points here Wednesday night as the No. 4 Class AA Yellowjackets led from start to finish in an 83-35 Little Kanawha Conference triumph versus Ravenswood.

The 1-2 Red Devils of head man Mick Price, who are off until rival Ripley invades on Saturday, Dec. 27, were assessed a technical foul during warmups for dunking the ball.

WHS, now 2-0 with a road affair set for Friday at Scott, had an overall balanced scoring attack with fellow starters Wyatt Powell (11), Tyler Keiser (8), JP Strobl (7) and Dom Strcula (7) lending a hand. The ‘Jacket bench was paced by Nate Nicely’s 10 counters while Nate Frye had nine and Colt Rinard seven.

“The thing is we are kind of in a similar situation. I mean they are in a little bit different situation because they lost five starters, but we also lost four, five starters depending on who was in the lineup for us last year,” admitted WHS head coach Scott Sauro, whose club raced out to a 24-0 advantage and led 26-4 after one, 46-11 at intermission and 68-23 entering the fourth. “We have just kind of an odd group.

“We got some of these returners who were kind of role players for us last year and they are stepping up into new roles and we are counting on them for a lot more for production. Then we got some young guys coming in, sophomores and freshmen, that can play. The thing with this team is just trying to mesh them together as one cohesive unit. So far I think our upperclassmen have done a great job of incorporating all of our young guys. You can’t have a good team without having that good leadership from the seniors and so far we’ve had that.”

Williamstown's Dom Strcula applies pressure on Ravenswood's Gonzalo Garcia during the Yellowjackets' 83-35 victory Wednesday night. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

Following his foul shots, Atkinson converted a lay-in and it was 7-0 after Keiser, who had a game-high two blocks, connected from downtown.

After a Strcula layup and a Keiser deuce via a Powell feed, Nicely had a steal and a layup to make it 13-0 as the Red Devils called timeout at the 4:27 mark as the visitors had seven turnovers and missed all four of their field goal attempts up to that point.

Frye made it 16-0 following a trifecta and after two more foul shots by Atkinson, Strobl converted a three-point play before Strcula came up with a steal and found Powell for a 3, which put Ravenswood in a 24-0 hole.

Kaden Walters, who had a team-high nine markers, finally got the Red Devils on the board with 55.1 ticks left when he made the second of two free-throw attempts.

Although Brooks Wolfe added a free throw and Walters finally made Ravenswood’s first field goal with 42 seconds to go, Cedric Davis closed the quarter with a bucket for the 22-point bulge.

Williamstown's Colt Rinard (55) tries to avoid Ravenswood's Owen Curtis as teammate JP Strobl pursues during the Yellowjackets' 83-35 victory Wednesday night. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

A putback by Strobl got the hosts going in the second as WHS went ahead 30-4 following a block by Eli Houser that led to a Rinard deuce

Atkinson drained a corner 3 to make it 44-11 with 1:19 remaining in the half and the freshman also added the last bucket before the break. Ravenswood’s lone field goal of the stanza came from WHS transfer Isaac Beall, which made it 36-9.

The Yellowjackets, who hit 9 of 22 from distance and shot 53.4% (31 of 58), held a commanding 37-19 edge on the glass with Mason Kern’s seven boards and Strobl’s half dozen leading the way.

Williamstown opened the second half by knocking down its first six attempts, which included a triple apiece by Atkinson, Strcula and Powell. Nicely closed the stanza with a dunk in front of the home bench.

Ravenswood, which had 10 of its 17 turnovers in the first quarter, scored 12 points in the third behind a 3 apiece from Owen Curtis and Wolfe along with deuces by Gonzalo Garcia and Wolfe as well as two foul shots from Kalem Hupp.

Williamstown's Caleb Atkinson scored a game-high 18 points during the Yellowjackets' 83-35 victory Wednesday night versus Ravenswood. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

Sauro, who reached career win No. 399, said the Yellowjackets never have played as Scott during his 22-year tenure.

“We graduated five guys that in four years won 85 games so we have to figure out what life is going to be like after that. Think about that,” Sauro said. “We won 85 games and they are gone. Now we are creating this new unit and so far they’ve been really meshing well together.

“It’s going to get tougher and we’re going to have adversity, but we’re looking forward to it. I’m looking forward to adversity because I want to see how they react. It’s coming.”

Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com