The Red Dragons certainly have a team that can do just that, as all were able to see in a 83-66 nonleague win over visiting Southwestern on Tuesday night.

In Roller’s first game behind the bench, Maple Grove exploded out to a 28-9 lead after the first quarter, with that margin eventually growing to 25 points early on in the second.

The Red Dragons would have the benefit of some hot hands early on, but did the majority of their damage in transition.

With a roster that has plenty of speed and athleticism on tap, Roller’s style should be a perfect fit.

Maple Grove’s Tyler McPherson (24) shoots over Southwestern’s Aiden Kennedy during Tuesday’s nonleague basketball game.

“We’ve got speed, I’ve got eight cross country runners,” said Roller. “We started late, too, because of cross country and football, so we were a week behind. When you have eight cross country runners and your football players are Ayden Reagle and Cade Egan, he ran cross country and played football, we are in shape.”

Maple Grove was able to find space in the paint from the get-go, as Reagle, Tyler McPherson and Drew Kelemen all got on the board with inside finishes. Reagle would complete a three-point play after drawing contact on a fast break to give the hosts an 18-3 cushion, and Southwestern would make things worse for itself shortly after that with a turnover that Peter Auer turned into another three-point play.

Auer would follow that up with a pass to Cameron Crist for Maple Grove’s first trey of the night, which was followed by another long-range bucket for Egan as the lead grew to 24-5.

“Shooting and speed,” were the major factors, according to Southwestern head coach Aaron Emley. “They have Auer and McPherson back and we knew that those guys are really good players. They have some good pieces to go along with them, but they get out quick in transition and our transition (defense) isn’t what it needs to be right now.”

Before the buzzer sounded in the first quarter, Maple Grove would add two final buckets as Reagle tossed in a finish while falling away from the basket and then grabbed a outlet pass from Auer for another transition layup.

Outlet passes would continue to generate offense for the speedy Red Dragons in the second period, with Crist hitting Reagle in stride while Auer and McPherson found buckets on baseline drives.

Maple Grove finds itself in an interesting scheduling position early on this season. The Red Dragons were forced to cancel their tournament this coming weekend, and will not play again until they meet Panama early next week.

Despite the late start due to successful cross country and football seasons, it does not appear that Roller will have any issues with his team’s physical conditioning.

“We want to play games,” said Roller. “We still have a ton of work to do. We have to work on some fundamentals. You can see cheap, dumb fouls. But they are excited, I can’t get on them too much. We’ll be doing fundamentals, some shooting, working on our offense more (this week).”

Likewise, Southwestern has had the challenge of getting off to a late start after the Trojans’ extended football postseason.

One of the keys to that success, Aidan Kennedy, would find some offensive success in the second quarter on his way to a 15-point, four-rebound, three-steal effort to lead Southwestern.

Aden Froah would score nine of his 13 points in the final period of play, while Charles Bailey also scored 13 points with three 3s coming in the final period for the visitors.

“These guys are still learning to play together because we are missing a couple of pieces,” said Emley. “I think seven out of my ten are football players, too, and they made a deep run in the playoffs. I’ve just kind of reminded them that it is going to take us some time to get going this year. We haven’t had as much time as I’d like in the gym to prepare.”

Despite the efforts of Bailey and Kennedy, Maple Grove’s early offensive push was just too much to overcome down the stretch. Auer would finish with 18 points and 12 rebounds; Reagle 18 points and five steals; McPherson 16 points; and Jones 9 points. Auer, Kelemen and Jones would all dish out four assists.

SOUTHWESTERN (66)

Kennedy 5 4 15, Munir 2 0 4, Froah 5 3 13, Johnson 3 1 7, Fye 1 0 2, Bailey 4 2 13, Pearson 2 0 5, Pascarella 2 2 7. Totals 24 12 66.

MAPLE GROVE (83)

Jones 4 1 9, P. Auer 8 1 18, Egan 1 0 3, Reagle 8 2 18, Weston 0 0 0, Crist 3 0 7, Myles 0 0 0, Kelemen 4 0 8, R. Auer, Lindell 0 0 0, Tranum 1 0 2, McPherson 6 1 16, Maloney 1 0 2, Samuelson 0 0 0. Totals 36 5 83.

3-point goals: P. Auer, Egan, Crist, McPherson 3, Kennedy, Bailey 3, Pearson Pascarella.

Southwestern 9 17 14 26–66

Maple Grove 28 19 25 11–83