Entering Tuesday’s Southwest Prairie Conference opener against Valley View School District rival Romeoville, the Bolingbrook girls basketball team had only played one game this season.

Romeoville, meanwhile, had six games under its belt.

It didn’t seem to matter as Bolingbrook’s pressure defense stifled the Spartans from the get-go.

En route to a 73-22 win, the Raiders (2-0, 1-0) held a 10-0 lead before Romeoville was able to get a shot off and led 14-0 before the Spartans (0-7, 0-1) scored on a 3-pointer by Aaliyah Adams, who led the team with 15 points.

Prior to Adams’ triple, Heaven Harris delivered eight points in the 14-0 run and finished the game with 11 points and five rebounds. She was one of four Raiders in double digits as Natalie Frempong, Kennedy Williams and Sydney Dodd all scored 12, while Skylar Wakefield scored nine and A’mya Simmons added eight.

“This was my first start,” Harris said. “I guess I played my way into the lineup during practice. I like to work hard, and we work real hard in practice. We work more on our defense than anything else, and that lets us get transition baskets.

“We don’t have any egos on this team. We don’t care who scores a basket as long as someone does. We have been practicing so hard that the games are the easy part. We just go out and play our game - pressure defense and crash the boards.”

That plan certainly worked, especially in the first quarter when the Raiders built a 34-5 lead before playing mostly second-stringers for most of the second quarter.

Frempong hit back-to-back 3-pointers in the second to give the Raiders a 40-10 lead, then converted a steal into a layup and hit a jumper in the lane to put Bolingbrook ahead 44-13. Romeoville got back-to-back hoops from Adams and Kacey Foust to pull to within 44-17, but Bolingbrook ended the half on a 10-0 spurt, sparked by four points each from Dodd and Simmons, to take a 54-17 edge into halftime.

“This was only our second game of the year,” Bolingbrook coach Chris Smith said. “I had to give the starters some extra playing time because they haven’t been on the floor.

“We’ve had years where there were only three girls that were going to score very much for us. This year, teams have to fear all five that are on the floor at any given time. Everyone can score, and they can also find whoever else is open to score.”

The Bolingbrook defense limited Romeoville to just two points in the third quarter and took a 64-19 lead into the fourth quarter to start the running clock. Williams had four of Bolingbrook’s 10 points in the quarter, while Harris had three, Dodd two and Williams one. Adams scored the lone basket in the quarter for Romeoville.

Adams also had the lone bucket for the Spartans - a 3-pointer - in the fourth quarter. Teyona Stewart had all six of her points in the fourth for Bolingbrook, while Leilani Aguilera also had a basket and Aubrey McElroy made a free throw.

“Heaven Harris got her first start tonight and did a real good job,” Smith said. “She normally comes off the bench for us, but she played well in a starting role. Our energy and our effort, especially on the boards, was huge for us.”