A little homework paid off for the Pioneer High School boys basketball team.

Pioneer coach Rex Stanczak had scouted Monroe three times this season and noticed the Trojans' struggles with the press. So, naturally, he deployed one in Friday night's Southeastern Conference Red Division game.

It worked. The Pioneers cruised to a 70-32 win over the visiting Trojans.

"It was really an effort and energy issue tonight, It seemed like every loose ball our guys were diving for and getting em,” Stanczak said. “Our mantra tonight was ‘own the gym.’”

Jibreel Hussein led the Pioneers with 17 points and Jimmy Holman had 14 as they improved to 6-3 on the year and 2-0 in league play.

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Pioneer jumped out a 22-5 lead after the first quarter and led 45-12 at the half. Stanczak said his club has been showing signs of improvement in practice and it translated to the floor Friday.

"We did a nice job. We've been practicing so much better since the calendar flipped,” Stanczak said. "Our guys are not inexperienced any more."

Tedd March led Monroe with nine points.

TEMPERANCE BEDFORD 53, SKYLINE 52

Skyline saw a late lead slip away after a game-changing call in the final minutes at Bedford.

The turning point came with about two minutes left. Skyline (5-3, 1-1 SEC Red) was up three points and Marquis Wesley scored inside. Skyline coach Mike Lovelace thought his team was up five with a chance to go up six at the foul line, but the whistle was for a charge.

Bedford’s Jackson Lamb, who finished with 20 points, completed a three-point play on the other end to tie it. Bedford scored the next four points and Skyline’s 3-pointer with about one second left made the final margin one point.

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"We just seemed to have a lot of bad breaks go against us, especially in the last quarter," Lovelace said. "We feel like we played well enough to win. On the road you really have to play through some things."

Theron Wilson had 17 points, eight rebounds and five assists for the Eagles.

"Theron had a big game, offensively and defensively," Lovelace said.

Lovelace said it would’ve been a great win to win at Bedford, a tough place to play with a great player in Lamb. Instead, it goes down as a tough loss.

"Games like this, we have to find a way to pull them out," Lovelace said.

YPSILANTI 67, DEXTER 41

Brandon Thomas knocked down a 3-point shot on three consecutive trips down the floor in the second quarter to pull Ypsilanti in front of Dexter and the Phoenix never looked back.

Thomas, a call-up for the junior varsity team, has only been with the team for a couple games.

"We had really been missing scoring from the other wing,” said Ypsilanti coach Steve Brooks. “He really did a good job scoring."

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Tristan Simmons scored 28 points, including five 3-pointers, as the Phoenix moved to 4-3 on the season and 2-0 in SEC White play.

Brooks revealed after the game that Simmons has been playing the early part of the season with strep throat and Friday was the first game he has been completely healthy.

"He's really now just getting well. We were glad for him,” Brooks said.

Dexter (3-5,1-1) played Ypsilanti tight for most of the first half until Thomas’ run of baskets.

"Their pressure and length made it very difficult for us to get good looks and created turnovers,” said Dexter coach Randy Swoverland. "I thought we missed some good chances in the first half. We had some chances to keep the game close."

Brooks said he stressed to his team the importance of dictating the tempo of the game against Dexter. Recent meetings between the schools have been low-scoring affairs that favor Dexter’s style of play.

Early on, the game was playing out the way Dexter wanted, but once Ypsilanti jumped in front, that changed.

"They had to come to us at that point,” said Brooks.

Jay Lewis led Dexter with 10 points.

BLOOMFIELD HILLS BROTHER RICE 61, FATHER GABRIEL RICHARD 48

Brother Rice outscored Gabriel Richard 19-6 in the fourth quarter to break open a game that was tied after three quarters.

"We were up 10-2 and feeling pretty good about ourselves," Gabriel Richard coach Pete Schoch said.

That feeling did not last long, however, as Brother Rice took the lead by halftime.

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"Brother Rice played hard. Harder than we did at times in the game," Schoch said. "We did not have a good level of intensity."

Schoch called the loss disappointing because he thought the Fighting Irish made a lot of progress in a hard-fought 53-51 loss to Orchard Lake St. Mary’s on Tuesday.

"We turned the ball over a bunch. Our ball movement was very poor," Schoch said. "We did not play well as a team whatsoever tonight."

Jason Houle led Gabriel Richard (2-7, 0-2) with 16 points. Josh Bates scored 18 for Brother Rice.

LINCOLN 59, ADRIAN 56

Will Russell’s basket with 2.6 seconds left capped a 14-point second half comeback for Lincoln.

The Railsplitters led by one point when Adrian was fouled with 11 seconds to go. After Adrian made both free throws, Lincoln coach Mike Foley called timeout.

Chris Williams executed the set play, penetrating and finding Russell, who made a tough lay-up to give Lincoln a 57-56 lead.

Scott Chatfield intercepted the ensuing inbounds pass, was fouled and made both free throws with 0.8 seconds left.

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Lincoln (3-3, 1-1 SEC White) trailed by 14 points in the third quarter when Foley put his team in a press defense.

"We had to make some changes. We were playing too lackadaisical on defense," Foley said. "I challenged them to challenge themselves and they stepped up to the plate."

The Railsplitters started slowly in part because they arrived in Adrian during the fourth quarter of the junior varsity game and had little time to warm up. Still, they led 26-24 at halftime before being outscored 21-10 in the third quarter.

Demarqus Washington scored 16 points and Brendan Griffin 15 for Lincoln. Sebastian Johnson led Adrian with 24 points.

"Adrian is a very good team," Foley said. "We did a great job scouting and knew what they were going to do."

CHELSEA 49, TECUMSEH 39

A strong second half helped Chelsea overcome a slow start and pick up its first conference win of the year.

"I thought our defense really picked up in the third quarter,” said coach Robin Raymond.

Michael Steinhauer had a game-high 20 points to go along with 12 rebounds for Chelsea (3-5,1-1 SEC White). Jake Fischhaber added 11 points.

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"On the offensive end we got the ball in to Michael,” said Raymond. “Michael certainly had a good day on the block. He was a dominant force inside."

Chelsea was trailing 23-22 after two quarters but was able to hold Tecumseh to a scant five points in the third quarter, helping Chelsea take a 36-30 entering the fourth quarter.

Matt Kasper led the Indians with 15 points.

MILAN 59, RIVERVIEW 42

Milan bounced back from its first loss of the season on Tuesday to shoot 57-percent from the floor in its Huron League win.

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Jiles Neely led three Milan players in double-figures with 16 points. C.J. Turnage scored 15 and Andre Duffin 12 for the Big Reds (5-1, 1-1).

"Guys are sharing the ball, there are no egos," Milan coach Josh Tropea said. "They're getting good shots."

But Tropea credited the win to the other side of the court.

"Our defense was really good," he said. "We really came out of the locker room both times (first and third quarter) and played really well defensively."

Corey Turner scored 11 points for Riverview.

WILLOW RUN 99, TAYLOR TRILLIUM 19

The starters only played the first quarter, but that was plenty for Willow Run.

Mackenzie Dunlap scored 21 of his 27 in the first quarter as the Flyers (4-5, 3-1 Michigan Metro Athletic Conference) cruised to the 80-point victory.

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"It was necessary for our starters to set the tone,” said Willow Run coach George Woods.

After putting up 39 points in the first quarter, Woods played his reserves for a majority of the remaining three quarters, earning them some valuable playing time.

"It lets us know, as a coaching staff, that when it comes time for them to play, we know they can execute,” Woods said.

Kareem Lovelace and Daquanta Brown each scored 14 points in the win.

TAYLOR BAPTIST PARK 63, GREENHILLS 54

One night after building a 14-point first quarter lead against Eastern Washtenaw Multicultural Academy, Greenhills found itself down 23-12 after one quarter and couldn’t recover.

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"We got a little rattled with their length on offense," Greenhills coach Andrew Wright said. "It took them a quarter to adjust to it, but once they did they battled back."

Greenhills twice was within six points with the ball in the fourth but couldn’t come any closer. The Gryphons made four 3-pointers on what Wright estimated were 30 attempts.

Andrew Khouri scored 25 points and Reed Wilborn had 11 for Greenhills (2-5 ,1-3). Anthony Kaminski led Taylor Baptist Park with 19 points.

"They hit us on the glass. They're a big team," Wright said. "They were just cleaning up anything they missed."

RUDOLF STEINER 63, MARSHALL ACADEMY 35

A 35-14 halftime lead allowed the Storm to give nine players good minutes and all of them scored at least two points. Six players had at least six points.

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"Everyone got great minutes. It was a great team win," Steiner coach Nick Sherwood said.

Freshman point guard Ben Hadlock scored 15 points for the Storm. Peter Larson, described by Sherwood as a “project,” added 10 points and eight rebounds. Sherwood said the Steiner coaching staff has moved Larson into the post, even though he doesn't have a typical post frame.

"He's really kind of flourished down low," Sherwood said.

WASHTENAW CHRISTIAN 59, ARBOR PREP 16

Washtenaw Christian was able to take advantage of an edge in experience to defeat Arbor Prep, while getting some experience for its younger players.

“The boys did all the little things right today,” said coach Aaron Hoesli. “They rebounded well, they boxed out.”

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With a 32-6 lead at halftime, Hoesli was able to get some of his freshmen and sophomores into the game against Arbor Prep, which has nothing but freshmen and sophomores on its team.

"It was good to get my freshmen and sophomore in there to play,” he said. "The boys had a fun Friday night. I definitely tried to make it as fair as I could."

Brian Stout led the way for the Wildcats with 14 points while Josiah and Mathias Donat each scored 12 points.

Michael Donatelli scored 14 of Arbor Prep's 16 points.

LUTHERAN WESTLAND 59, CALVARY CHRISTIAN 33

Calvary Christian, down to six players due to illness, led 10-9 after the first quarter until fatigue caught up with the Cougars.

"We started running out of gas defensively halfway through that second quarter," Calvary coach Steve Thurmond said. "That's when our scoring started tailing off and our mistakes started creeping up."

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Despite being outscored 20-6 in the second quarter and losing handily, Thurmond saw positives for Calvary (2-5, 1-2).

"They did play pretty good despite the fact that we were outmanned," hesaid. "Did some good things."

James Bergler (16 points, seven rebounds) and Maalek Getchell (14 points, 12 rebounds) scored all but three of Calvary’s points. Dawson Davenport scored 19 for Lutheran Westland.

"It showed the guys that we can play with them," Thurmond said of the first quarter. "We're looking forward to playing them the second time."

CLINTON 69, WHITMORE LAKE 34

Game details not available.

Coaches may submit scores by calling 734-623-2565 or by emailing prepsports@annarbor.com.