The Jamestown Red Raiders had just dispatched of Clarence in their home opener Tuesday night and Billy Miley, the basketball program's junior varsity coach, sat near the scorer's table at McElrath Gymnasium and totaled up the statistics.
Normally, that job belongs to varsity assistant Marty Stockwell.
But Stockwell wasn't in his familiar place on Jamestown's bench.
Neither was freshman coach Tage Hall.
Instead, both men were on the road.
Stockwell was scouting Edison Tech of Rochester (the Red Raiders' opponent later this month in the Irondequoit Tournament) while Hall was checking out Bennett, the Buffalo school that Jamestown will face in the opening round of the United Way Tournament on Friday.
For the Red Raiders, ranked 10th in the state in Class AA and third among Western New York large schools, the attention to detail is why they've been so successful the last 15 years.
But the start to this season has been unique for them because they didn't open until Dec. 8 when they knocked off Williamsville South in the Cataract Classic in Niagara Falls. Three days later, they upended St. Joe's and three days after that they routed Orchard Park in their Erie County Interscholastic Conference Division 1 opener.
And with last night's win over Clarence, another ECIC Division 1 foe, Jamestown is 4-0 overall and 2-0 in the division.
Head coach Ben Drake said the late start to the season - at least compared to many other area schools - was by design.
''Having 18 games instead of 20 (is part of it),'' he said. ''If we had more games right now, we'd have these long stretches in January where we're not playing for 10 days. It seemed like it made sense not to take the long breaks later on.''
The United Way Tournament is a week later than normal, but Drake likes the idea of having it closer to the holiday anyway.
''It could be a good thing for the school and the community because it's always nice to have a home game around Christmas,'' he said. ''People are coming home and you get to see a lot of old faces. I've always liked games then.''
Drake, now in his 15th year as coach at his alma mater, likes the aggressive non-league schedule, too.
''I always think it's good to challenge us,'' he said. ''We get to see where we're at and where we need to get better. Win or lose, I always think that we get a lot from playing good teams.''