Every person in the Pioneer High School gymnasium bleachers was temporarily branded with the same message Friday night: Believe.

And for the first half of the Pioneers' non-conference boys basketball game against state power Detroit Country Day, there was no reason not to.

But when the second half opened with a 10-2 Yellowjacket run, the message that Pioneer game staff stamped on the right hand of paying customers started to fade.

And by the time standout senior Ray McCallum Jr. was finished with his 16-point second half - which included a showtime dunk midway through the fourth quarter that had the Pioneer gym roaring - Country Day was well on its way to a 75-55 win.

Despite the lopsided final score, Pioneer coach Rex Stanczak was pleased with his team's performance. He said except for a three-minute stretch of the fourth quarter when Country Day went on a 14-0 run to lead 73-49, it was his team's second-best performance of the season besides a recent win over Dearborn Heights Robichaud.

"At Pioneer we're never, ever going to claim moral victories or feel good about a loss," he said. "But I thought there were a lot of things we could build off." (Rest of the Story & Photo Gallery | Boxscore)