The senior-night energy provided by Woodstock’s student section arrived early.

It never left. The basketball team’s seniors – who are mainly bench guys as well as great humans, coach Ryan Starnes said – wouldn’t let the energy die with Richmond-Burton in the house for a Kishwaukee River Conference showdown.

Was Woodstock’s James M. Shipley Memorial Gymnasium swaying Wednesday night?

“The ‘Ship’ was packed tonight,” Blue Streaks senior guard Matthew Cress said. “[Junior forward] Brenner Swanson always says, ‘The Ship is getting rowdy tonight.’ He’s one of my guys on the bench who sits with us.”

Cress, a star wide receiver on the football team who doesn’t play most nights, took advantage of his senior-night start. He scored the game’s first bucket, and Woodstock never relented en route to a 58-40 win.

“Our seniors came out, and they just wanted to play hard,” Streaks junior Max Beard said after coming off the bench to post a game-high 24 points (five 3-pointers), six rebounds and three steals. “They said at practice two days ago that for senior night they wanted to start, foul right away and get out of the game, which was very unselfish of them. I thought it was very nice of them. They gave it their all, and it showed.”

Cress was joined in the starting lineup by Eshaan Virani, Ty Steponaitis, Dushae Williams Jr. and JJ Stokes, who’s the only of the five who usually starts. It took Cress less than 30 seconds into the game to fire up a 3-pointer (miss) and sink a 10-foot jumper.

He then intentionally fouled and hustled to the bench with a pep in his step, smiling and celebrating with his teammates, as Woodstock’s usual starters checked into the game.

“I mean, it’s not like I’m a super important player,” said Cress, who had 43 receptions and 10 touchdowns in helping the football team make the state playoffs last fall. “But setting the tone and getting the guys excited to go win this huge game [was important]. Hopefully it gets us on pace to win conference.”

The win kept Woodstock (16-9, 8-2) one game back of first-place Johnsburg in the KRC. Richmond-Burton (17-7, 7-3), which got 22 points and 10 rebounds from Luke Robinson, dropped two games back.

The Rockets spotted the Streaks a 6-0 lead and didn’t score until Gavin Radmer hit a pull-up shot in the lane with 2:12 left in the opening quarter. R-B shot 1 of 11 in the first quarter and trailed 12-2.

It never got better for the visitors against the Streaks’ man-to-man defense.

“We were playing catch-up the entire game,” R-B coach Rich Petska said. “You can’t start the game 0 for the first five minutes. We had shots roll around inside the rim and had about six that didn’t go down that looked good. You’re just chasing the rest of the game. It’s tough.”

Beard, in contrast, started hot, hitting his first two 3-point shots, and his second-quarter play along with Rian Hahn-Clifton’s two 3-pointers, helped Woodstock take a 28-14 lead into halftime.

Beard continued his sharp shooting in the third quarter, hitting three more 3s, while also helping defend Robinson.

“I told him, ‘It was one of the better all-around games you’ve played in a long time,’” Starnes said.

Beard said the Streaks’ defensive strategy against the Rockets’ all-time leading scorer and rebounder Robinson involved a lot of face guarding and ball denial.

“He caught the ball all night pretty much, but [the plan] was just to apply a little bit more pressure, get him out of rhythm, try to get in his head a little bit,” Beard said. “Every time Luke drove, I was trying to be right there, trying to take away his gap.”

The sophomore Hahn-Clifton finished with 10 points. Steponaitis had eight points and nine rebounds. Stokes added five points and four boards.

“There’s a lot to learn from that group of seniors,” Starnes said. “They’re the most selfless kids in the entire world. We talked in the film room the other day about how we wanted to go about [senior night]. ‘Do you want to start? Do you not want to start?’ Most of them were like, ‘No, we want to win. You don’t have to start us.’ ”

Cress, Virani and Williams got bonus playing time late in the fourth.

The “Ship” was rowdy again when the seniors re-entered.

“Senior night, they brought the energy,” Petska said of the Streaks. “Good for them. They played really well.”