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(Observer photos by Mike Nicley)

      Romeo High basketball Coach Dale Teller and his staff had a solid game plan heading into Friday night's season opener with Fraser at Romeo; stop the Ramblers' big men from beating you.
       Unfortunately for the Bulldogs, the rest of the Fraser starters were on fire from the outside and won 57-48.
       The Ramblers hit their first three shots of the game; two were 3-pointers and had seven 3-pointers in the first half alone.
       "Going into the game our focus was to not let their post players hurt us,'' said Teller. "We did a great job doing that but we forgot to guard anyone else. The game was one minute old and we were already down by eight.''
       A pair of back-to-back three's by Erik Lockard (15 points) and Zach Ferguson to start the second quarter gave Fraser a 21-6 lead before the Bulldogs finally woke up and went on a 15-6 run to cut the Ramblers' lead to six points, 31-25 at the half.
       The second half was more of the same with Fraser pulling away early and Romeo battling back to make it close.
       "We were getting embarrassed, not by what Fraser was doing but what we were not doing,'' said Teller. "Poor execution on offense and no intensity on defense led to us being down. To the players' credit, we battled back, but as a coach I'm disappointed I did not have these guys ready. It's a good sign and we're young so we will get better. It's a long season. Thankfully, it's our first game and not our last."
       Adam Davis, 17 points and seven rebounds, led Romeo in scoring followed by Drew Cushingberry with 13 points and a game-high 10 rebounds. Jon Towne added six points, George Wilson, who did an excellent job defending the post, finished with four points and six rebounds. Blake Williams chipped in with four points, Dwight Towne had two and Antonio Compo and Zach Rizo had one point each for the Bulldogs (0-1).
       Romeo will travel to Port Huron this Friday and then will play back-to-back games next week on Wednesday, Dec. 19, at Utica Ford II, after which it will head to Lake Orion the very next day, Dec. 20, to play the Dragons before Christmas break.