ATHENS – Decatur went on a 17-9 run before the half to surge past Athens 70-54 Friday night in Class 5A, Area 16 boys action.

The Red Raiders improve to 2-0 in the area with the win, while Athens drops to 0-1.

Decatur coach Jamie Lee said that getting off to a fast start in the area is crucial.

“Our area is stacked this year,” Lee said. “Every team in our area is talented, so it’s important to get off to a good start. It’s even bigger for us since we were able to win on the road.

“We want to host the area tournament, so it’s good that we were able to get two wins against very good basketball teams (Muscle Shoals and Athens).”

Athens jumped out to a 14-10 lead in the first period. But Decatur changed to man defense in the second period and went on a 15-5 run that Athens was never able to overcome.

“We were having a difficult time defending some of Athens’ players early,” Lee said. “During a timeout, Rico (Pickett) looked at me and said ‘coach, let’s go to man defense.’ That’s when we started to get some turnovers and were able to go on a big run.”

Athens coach Vernard Hendrix said he expects his team to continue to improve during the next few weeks. Due to the football team’s championship run, the Golden Eagles were missing several key players for the opening weeks of the season.

“Things will start to come together for us,” Hendrix said. “These guys will continue to get better and things will work out. But right now, we’ve got a lot of work to do.”

Lee said coming into the game, he knew Decatur had to find a way to slow down Justin Pitts and Larquis Crutcher. Pitts finished the night with only 10 points, but Crutcher led all scorers with 19 points.

“Both of those guys can play,” Lee said. “We knew we had to key on those guys to be successful.”

Athens had four players reach double figures in scoring. Along with Crutcher and Pitts, Jacquez Pride and Zack Brock had 10 points each.

Pickett led Decatur with 19 points. Jarodiaus Willingham added 16 points, while Mark Mason scored 13 for the Red Raiders.