King’s Fork High School’s boys’ basketball team is off to a 2-0 start after the first week of the season.

After going 11-12 on the year last year, the Bulldogs are on the road to a better performance this season. Last Tuesday, the Bulldogs opened the season against Hickory High School and defeated them on their home floor, 68-23. On Friday night, the Bulldogs were on the road again against Deep Creek High School and got another win.

Bulldogs coach Josh Worrell feels that his team is playing well enough to win, but they are not where they want to be yet. The season is relatively young, and with so many games ahead the Bulldogs are confident they will start limiting their mental lapses. Coming into this year Worrell and the Bulldogs wanted to improve on mistakes they made in the previous year.

“We want to understand the game a little bit better,” Worrell said. “I have some kids with me this year who are veterans now. So we want to try not to make the same mistakes as last year.”

The Bulldogs have returning players who are expected to add production throughout the season. Junior guards Rontre Pope and James Hatton will handle duties in the backcourt. Raemaad Wright is a senior forward who will lead in the front court. In the game against Hickory, Wright logged 15 points and 16 rebounds in a win for the Bulldogs. Tre Bailey and Omar Skinner will also add experience to the team.

Their record so far bodes well for the team’s confidence, but Worrell knows his teams will need to progress as different teams offer different levels of competition.

“In the first game, everybody gets to play, and everybody is happy there,” Worrell said. “But each team we play will get better, just like we are.”

Worrell was impressed with how his team was able to keep its lead against Indian River. The Bulldogs weren’t up by double digits for most of the game but kept the margin manageable. Each year the Bulldogs pride themselves on defense, which creates opportunities for them to get out and run on offense.

“I really don’t preach to the guys about scoring,” Worrell said. “If we do a good job rebounding and playing strong defense, the offense will take care of itself. We have to play intense, sound basketball and limit turnovers. We are going to score somehow. We just need to focus on doing the other three things well, and we’ll be fine.”

King’s Fork will be at home for the first time this season on Tuesday. They will play Western Branch at 7 p.m.