Pottsville's Eli Nabholz battled a variety of injuries last winter and missed most of the Crimson Tide's basketball season.
If Friday is any indication, the now-healthy junior forward could on the verge of a big year.
Nabholz had a career-high 19 points, while Travis Blankenhorn and Jordan Melochick also hit in double figures, as Pottsville opened its season with a 53-34 rout of Danville at Martz Hall.
Nabholz played in only eight games last season, missing the first 15 with a back injury. In his third game back against Blue Mountain on Jan. 29, he injured his ankle and missed the next four contests. He then returned for Pottsville's final five games.
"It is amazing coming out, especially with the group of guys we have here," Nabholz said. "It is just so much fun to be back out and just play hard for a full game. It is a phenomenal feeling, especially in Martz."
Nabholz scored the Tide's first points of the game on a kick-out 3-pointer from John Toomey, but had his best quarter in the second with eight points. He hit his second 3-pointer of the game, and then muscled his way inside to score and complete the three-point play after he was fouled.
Nabholz's final points of the quarter came on a spin move in the lane. He added 12 rebounds and also had two blocks.
"The key tonight was just my teammates getting me the ball when I was open," Nabholz said. "I am not a guy who is going to create plays for myself or create plays for other people. But I just try to be in the right spot and my teammates found me."
Blankenhorn added 16 points and three steals, while Melochick had 15 points, three assists and four steals as the Tide opened the game on an 8-0 run, led 19-6 after the first quarter and 29-16 at the half.
The Ironmen, who finished 19-5 last season and lost to Shikellamy in the District 4 Class AAA semifinals, returned just one starter from last season in senior Zack Kozick. The Tide wasted no time in jumping on Danville, forcing seven turnovers in the first quarter, with five on steals, and converting them into transition points at the other end.
It was a perfect start for Pottsville, which had four new starters in its lineup following last year's fourth consecutive Schuylkill League championship.
"We played good coming out and overall we played solid defensively," Pottsville coach Dave Mullaney said. "We have a lot of inexperienced guys and there are things we are going to get better at. To start off first quarter, we were pretty solid."
After Nabholz hit his 3-pointer and Toomey hit 1-of-2 from the foul line, the Tide's defense took over. Melochick had three steals in the first five minutes of the game as Pottsville converted all three into points.
Melochick set up Blankenhorn after a steal for a fast-break layup and then, after another steal, Blankenhorn set Melochick up for layup. After Phil Stemm scored the first points of the game for the Ironmen, Melochick went in for a layup after a steal to give Pottsville a 10-2 lead.
Later in the first, Melochick scored off a baseline drive and competed a three-point play after he was fouled. Blankenhorn added a layup and scored off an alley-oop from Melochick, while Nabholz scored another fast-break layup.
"That was the deciding factor, getting out ahead," Nabholz said.
The Tide finished the game shooting 21-for-45 (47 percent) from the floor and held Danville to 10-for-39 (26 percent) shooting. But Pottsville did commit 16 turnovers.
"We were good at times and I was happy," Mullaney said. "But we have so many things to clean up. We had so many unforced turnovers and we are not going to beat too many good teams doing that."