BELHAVEN — Pungo Christian Academy dropped a close decision to Faith Christian in its season opener. Since then, the Raiders have won three in a row, including a dominating 60-16 win over Gramercy Christian.

The effort starts on the defensive end of the court. Head coach Jason Adams emphasized locking down the visitors, which paid off in spades. From there, the team was able to use its speed to turn defense into opportunities on the fast break.

“We went to a 2-2-1 trap and started moving and forcing some turnovers,” he said. “That got some easy baskets and kind of led the way for us. They’re coming along. I’ve had this group since they were in seventh grade. They know what to do. It’s just a matter of getting them to do it.”

But the Raiders (3-1) didn’t run up and down the court the entire contest. Instead, they controlled the tempo. The first few minutes of the game were scoreless because Pungo moved the ball around the court, looking to see what would open up. The game plan had the home side attack the paint so as to create chances on the perimeter.

“We’re an inside first team then we look for the outside,” Adams said. “We take advantage of our size and then it will open up our outside shot. We did a good job on both sides today.”

The Raiders spent much of the first quarter settling in. They were able to get some baskets down low — including a pair of layups from Noah Cahoon — to take a 13-5 lead after eight minutes.

“Once we settled in and started running our offense, it worked well,” Adams said. “It started gapping some holes in their zone and we just started taking advantage of it at the high post.”

The game was one sided from then on out. Pungo took whatever it wanted inside and outscored Gramercy 30-5 in the second to take a 43-10 lead into halftime. It wasn’t long after the intermission that the Raiders built a 40-point lead and earned a running clock.

The lopsided victory gives Pungo confidence early in the season. Even so, there are still some things to address on the defensive end. For the most part, Van Staalduinen wants to work on the 2-2-1 trap and clean up the 1-3-1 zone.

“We have a lot to work on,” Adams said. “We will be as good as our defense allows us to be. That’s one thing we’re really striving to get better at each night … We want to get some easy looks off of our defense and get some turnovers then run our break for some easy baskets.”

Landon Woolard led the team in scoring with 13 points. He also had a team-best three assists. Will Respess (11) and Logan Van Staalduinen (10) also turned in double-digit efforts. The two also combined for 10 rebounds.