The Middlesboro Yellow Jackets opened the 2009-10 regular season Monday night with a 74-54 win over Oneida Baptist.

Seniors Chad Cowan and Blaine Green led the Middlesboro offense. Cowan hit four 3-pointers on his way to a game-high 26 points, while Green did most of his damage driving to the basket and finished with 22 points. They both grabbed nine rebounds to lead the Jackets in that category.

“Blaine and Chad led the way tonight,” Middlesboro coach Bill Jones said. “I thought Chad played extremely well offensively, I still want him to get more rebounds. Blaine played really well in spurts — those are our two returning starters and they basically carried the load.

“Everybody who played hustled and played hard and you can say the same for OBI, they played hard and didn’t quit.”

Cowan scored ten points in the first quarter and Green added five, including a three-point play, as Middlesboro slowly pulled out to an 18-8 lead.

OBI kept the game close through most of the first three quarters, answering every time the Jackets pushed their lead to 17 or 18 points. Junior center Okey Egeruoh led the Mountaineers with 18 points in the game, including six in second quarter.

Senior forward Brandon Lewis came off the bench to spark the Jackets in the second period. He hit three of four free throws and scored five of his six points in the second quarter. The Jackets led at the half 34-22.

Junior point guard Patrick Knuckles started looking for his shot in the third period and had a couple of steals as Middlesboro started pulling away. Knuckles scored six of his nine points in the period, Green added seven and Cowan five as the Jackets opened up a 54-34 advantage.

Cowan and Green combined for 14 points early in the fourth quarter as the Jackets led by as many as 26 before turning things over the bench.

Al Bangura scored 10 of his 12 points in the final period as the Mountaineers closed the gap to 20.

“We’ve still got a lot to work on, but I saw some things and combinations that I liked,” Jones said. “Patrick Knuckles didn’t do bad considering he missed last year completely. He scored nine points and had some assists and I thought (freshman) Austin Baker came in and did a pretty good job at the point, also.”

The Jackets have a different look this year as they try to repeat as 52nd District champions. Three starters graduated, including standout point guard Antwan Brown, power forward Nick Smith and defensive specialist Eddie Gilbert.

“In Antwan and Nick that’s about 40 points, 10 to 15 assists and bunch of rebounds we lost. We’re going to have to make it up by committee until someone steps up,” Jones added. “We’ve got some pretty good size.

“We’re just going to take it one game at a time and try to get better. We’re hoping to build on last year’s success as much as we can.”

Senior Matt Powers and Levon Poindexter joined Green, Cowan and Knuckles in the starting lineup Monday with Lewis first off the bench along with Baker and freshman Zach Riddle. The Jackets should get a boost inside soon as 6-5 senior transfer Derek Osborne is expected to start at center once he recovers from a foot injury.

Middlesboro (1-0) travels to Lynn Camp Thursday while OBI (0-1) hosts Wolfe County this evening.

The Jackets won the junior varsity game 48-42.  Freshmen Michael Wilson and Austin Baker both had 10 points to lead Middlesboro.

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Middlesboro 18 16 20 20 — 74

Oneida Baptist 8 14 12 20 — 54

MIDDLESBORO (74) — Chad Cowan 26, Blaine Green 22, Patrick Knuckles 9, Brandon Lewis 6, Levon Poindexter 4, Austin Baker 3, Matt Powers 2, Barton Poore 2, Zach Riddle 0, Logan Miracle 0, Nick Capps 0, Timmy Helton 0, Cameron Rancher 0, Michael Wilson 0, Zach Gilbert 0.

OBI (54): Okey Egeruoh 18, Al Bangura 12, Landen McCarley 10, Malcolm Akinbana 8, Michael Davidson 6, Daniel Gay 0, Jackson Abner 0, Shane Moser 0, Shay Adengen 0, Terry Davidson 0, Kortu Diafor 0.