Bishop Guertin's Eli Youssef swats away a shot attempty by Concord's Thomas Saysaw (23) during Friday night's season opener at the Colligadome. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – It’s not supposed to look this way.

Usually high school basketball teams are a bit ragged in their season openers, looking much better once the season gets past the midpoint.

But the Bishop Guertin High School boys basketball team jumped the gun and looked in mid-season form in rolling over a young Concord team, 97-42 Friday night at the Colligadome.

And it certainly won’t be this easy the rest of the way.

“We play Portsmouth and Bedford next week,” Cards coach Wil Horne said. “We know exactly how it’s going to be.

“It’s a great start for us obviously, a good team win, and get guys going, but we know we’ve got to go back to work and play Portsmouth on the road Monday. That’s a tough one.”

This one was anything but tough. The Tide, who went winless last year, have just one senior and simply looked young and completely overmatched. They had 16 turnovers in the first half, many leading to easy transition points/layups for BG, which led 35-6 after one quarter and 60-9 at halftime. A few minutes into the third, Horne pulled the starters.

Remember, BG graduated just one senior.

“We’ve got the same kids, I think their mentality is a little bit different,” Horne said. “We’re a little bit hungrier this year. The mentality of playing for each other, getting everybody into the game, that’s a little bit different than last year.”

The Cards were led by senior Connor McGowan with 34 points – 21 in the first quarter – while Eli Youssef add 15, Luca Fabrizio nine and Sam Prescott eight. Concord was led by Thomas Saysaw’s 10.

The transition game was something the Cards seemed to have improved on, but again, the level of competition may have impacted that. But that’s how Horne wants his team to play.

“We know that’s our game, we know that’s our game,” Horne said. “Get out and run, we’ve got the athletes to play in space, the playmakers to make good decisions. We want to run, speed teams up, and be a great defensive team.”

Horne was still surprised at how quickly his team got into gear.

“Our overall collective energy,” Horne said was a good sign. “I think our mindset right from the beginning of the game was where it needed to be. We had some tough scrimmages the last couple of days, but we had some good days of practice leading into this.”

And the Cards had something else the Tide didn’t: Tons of experience.

“I’ve got four guys who are getting into what, their 40th varsity games (McGowan , Yousseff, Fabrizio and Sam Woodward),” Horne said. “So we’re excited for that. And it looked like it today.”