He's gone about assembling his new team through the standard junior varsity route, with some unique measures thrown in --- like getting players off the golf team.

Regardless, there's no arguing with the results of the season opener, where the Wildcats used a 29-8 second half run to blow out Cedar Ridge 76-53 Friday night. The East girls also easily wonagainst Cedar Ridge.

The Wildcats debuted in front of a new group of Eastside boosters (including several fans adorned in bathrobes) who used Facebook connections to create a spirited student section inside Wildcat Gym.

Senior Aaron Law paced East with 17 points and six rebounds. Gabe Strathern added 15 points. Cedar Ridge's Josh Pappas led the Red Wolves with 18 points.

Though there was hardly a size disparity between the two teams, East dominated the glass, out-rebounding the Red Wolves, 41-15.

"That does my heart good hearing that," said Hartsfield. "We've stressed to the team the importance of defending the backboards on defense. Tonight, I think we did that."

Trailing at the half 37-30, the Red Wolves used a 3-pointer by Jake Lliteras and two free throws from Trai Clark to pull within 43-41 with 4:21 remaining in the third quarter. But the Wildcats quickly pushed the game out of reach with consecutive three-point plays, the first coming off a trey by Randall Davis off a feed from Greg Alston. Law followed with a coast-to-coast driving layup while getting fouled, and he hit the ensuing free-throw.

Alston followed with a 18-footer on the Wildcats' next possession to put the East advantage into double digits for the rest of the game.

Hartsfield has to face the challenge of replacing three starters from last year's team. So, to start this season on Friday night, he didn't just make a lot of substitutions. He made line changes.

All 13 players saw action in the first half, and all but one scored in the game. They included veterans (Law and Alston, both members of the varsity for three years) to new faces like senior Rusher Pope, who hasn't played basketball since eighth grade. Pope made his name at East playing golf in the spring. Coincidentally, Hartsfield usually drives the team bus for golf matches.

Last year, it didn't escape Hartsfield's attention that Pope had grown from 5-11 to 6-8 in the span of four years. The basketball coach quickly went into business for himself during golf outings, lobbying Pope to return to the hardwood.

Pope registered four points and four rebounds in his first organized basketball game since middle school.

"He's someone we're really excited about," said Hartsfield. "We have a lot of depth on this team. We were lucky to play a lot of kids tonight. We have to get down to a rotation soon, so it's good to play so many kids to get a feeling of where we're headed."

East will try to improve to 2-0 Tuesday at home against Carrboro.

Carrboro opened its season Tuesday against Lee Senior, with both the Jaguar girls and boys losing by narrow margins. Chapel Hill scrimmaged this weekend at the White Oak Jam in Jacksonville and then open its regular season Monday against Granville Central.

EAST CHAPEL HILL 76, CEDAR RIDGE 53

Friday, Nov. 20, at East Chapel Hill

CEDAR RIDGE: Trai Clark 4, Josh Pappas 18, Jake Lliteras 6 ,Blake Tilley 2, Tyler Raynor 4, Cameron Pappas 3, Trayvon Washington 2, Julius Graham 2, Kevin Brown 12.

EAST CHAPEL HILL: Aaron Law 17, Russ Whisenant 6, Greg Alston 2, Jon Howes 2, Randall Davis 12, Gabe Strathern 15, Daniel Kale 6, Michael Magnum 4, Rusher Pope 4, Michael Wolf 3, Bryson Gibson 2, Thomas Meyer 3.

3-Point goals: Cedar Ridge 6 (J.Pappas 4, C. Pappas, Lliteras); East Chapel Hill 6 (Davis 2, Law, Kale, Meyer, Strathern).

Fouled out: none. Technical Fouls: none. Rebounds: Cedar Ride 15 (Brown 6); East Chapel Hill 41(Magnum 7). Steals: Cedar Ridge 5 (Clark, Josh Evarts, Lliteras, C. Pappas, J.Pappas); East Chapel Hill 7 (Law, Wolf 2) Blocks: East (Whisenant).