RALEIGH — Athens Drive could not figure out how to break the Wake Forest-Rolesville three-quarter court press. For most of the Nov. 13 game, the Jaguars consistently found themselves trapped in their own half of the court, which resulted in bad passes and 22 turnovers.

And even though it was the one thing the team hadn’t covered in practice yet, the players didn’t panic. After some hasty adjustments, Athens was able to break the press en route to a 55-49 season-opening victory.

“The inexperience we have right now, particularly at the guard position, is sometimes difficult but they really just hung in there,” Danehower said. “I tried to use my timeouts just to relax them and get them down. I’m real proud of them because they didn’t hang their heads; they figured out a way to break that trap.”

Athens Drive, the reigning Tri-Eight champions, are coming off a 28-3 season in which they lost in the regional semifinal to Wilmington-Laney. It’s something Fordham signee Tyonna Willingham still thinks about.

“When you lose a game like that you always think about it, but it’s just motivation for us because we know how close we came last year,” said Willingham, who had 12 points and four assists against WF-R. “We know we have the opportunities and the talent to do it again and even go further. That just makes you try harder because you don’t wanna go through something like that again.”

The Jaguars pounced on the Cougars early, dominating much of the first and second quarters, and led by as many as 12 points. WF-R, however, went on a 6-0 run to close out the first half and cut the lead to 24-18.

“We started off sluggish in the beginning,” Wake Forest-Rolesville coach Tameka White said. “We probably had a lot of jitters but we weren’t doing the fundamental things that we needed to do like boxing out, making layups, the basic fundamentals to take care of the ball. We definitely weren’t executing in the first half.”

The Cougars kept it close in the third, and thanks to a pair of Terrica Jones free throws, gained their first lead of the game, 39-38, with 4:42 remaining. Jones finished with a game-high 22 points. The advantage was short-lived, however, as Markeisha Gatling kickstarted a 12-3 Athens run. Gatling scored six of her team-high 20 during the stretch. WF-R was able to get within three with 30 seconds left, but a Gatling basket and timely free throws sealed the game for the Jaguars.

Even though Athens had 22 turnovers, Danehower said he’s seen worse and he’s more concerned about the points given up off those turnovers.

“We gotta be able to get back and not allow them to do that,” Danehower said. “And we gotta be a little smarter and not foul. Some of the fouls we had were just silly. We’re smarter than that so we gotta learn, but it’s a good start for a first game. Wake Forest was well prepared and it’ll be a war at their place.”

The Jaguars have seven returning players, including three starters, although right now they are playing without one of their top players.

Chareya Smith, a 6-foot wing player who averaged 16 points and eight rebounds last year, is still recovering from an ACL tear that occurred over the summer. Danehower expects the East Carolina signee to be back in two or three weeks, although he would like her now since the Jaguars have Broughton, Millbrook, Sanderson and the GlaxoSmithKline Holiday Invitational coming up on the schedule.

“This is our toughest part of the schedule,” Danehower said. “When we get into conference I’m not gonna say it’s easy, but right now we’ve got some real tough games.”