Brenton Harris understands the difficulties of tipping off a basketball season.
"It's tough," Harris said. "You've got everybody coming up asking you how many games you're going to win before we play the first game. They ask if our team is going all the way. They ask how many dunks I'm going to have. It's kind of nerve-wracking."
His Butler team began the 2005-2006 season with a 79-55 triumph at Laney on Tuesday. Harris had a game worth talking about with a few of those dunks. He led all players with his 20 points and 12 rebounds.
"I don't know what to say when they ask all that," Harris said. "I just tell them I'll play hard."
The final is curious considering the halftime score. Butler led only 31-27 at the half.
"We had four starters with two fouls in the second quarter," Butler coach Rob Johnson said. "We were just hoping to survive until the half."
Butler also survived despite seven first-quarter turnovers. Harris had 10 points and eight rebounds at the half.
Butler (1-0) blasted the Wildcats from then on, most notably with a 17-3 run to start the third quarter, which made the game a lot less thrilling than the first half promised.
South Carolina signee Austin Steed struggled through foul trouble and finished 3 of 9 with seven points, five rebounds and three blocked shots. The man of the hour, other than Harris, was guard Reggie Middleton, who excelled in the second half.
Middleton flashed more of the steady hand that materialized last year during the Region 3-AAA playoffs. The sophomore scored all 13 of his points in the second half.
"That's our system," Johnson said. "All our starters are going to get a hot stretch at some point to carry us. Our starters usually average between 11 and 16 points. We keep it all balanced."
Harris liked the way his Bulldogs came together despite the off night from Steed.
"If everybody does what they need to do and keeps their heads on right, we have what it takes to go all the way," Harris said. "That's as long as we do what we need to do. And we've also got to avoid the big head. That's hard to do with everybody coming up talking more about stats than winning. We have to put all of that aside to succeed."
Laney was led by Xavier Collier, who had 17 points. He scored 11 of those in the second quarter to keep the game tight.
But the second-half letdown was what spoiled the coaching debut of Laney's Paul Martin.
The dry-erase board said it all: The phrases "discipline" and "follow instructions" were the keynote phrases of his post-game lecture to his Wildcats.
"It is my goal that when we get beat it is because we get beat by a more talented and better-disciplined team," Martin said. "We don't get beat because we stopped working or got outworked by the other team like we did tonight."
- Laney won a girls' contest that was the reverse of the nightcap. The Wildcats (1-0) led 35-23 at the half, but their lead was only 55-51 with 38 seconds left to play.
Laney guard Eboni Fields led the way with 20 points as her team went on to win, 58-51. Nicole Walden added 12 points. Tyia Johnson joined the trio in double figures with 10 points.
Forward Tracey Flowers led Butler with 14 points.
Reach Jeff Sentell at (706) 823-3425 or jeff.sentell@augustachronicle.com.
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