HANCEVILLE — Hanceville and Good Hope left all the drama on the football field. There was none left to spare in Lane Horton Gymnasium two Fridays after an epic gridiron clash, as the Bulldogs once against got the best of their Cullman County rival with an easy 77-34 win.

The Purple and Gold were paced by four different players with double-digit scoring outputs. The highest belonged to Xavier Malcom, who jumpstarted his junior campaign with a silky smooth 19 points and four assists.

Dant’e Reese shone in his senior debut with 14 points and seven rebounds, Isaac Weissend came alive late to top out at 13 points and Christian Sellers rode a hot first half to 11.

“It was real important because we needed to get our confidence up,” said Malcom, who made three of his five 3-pointers during the home team’s 17-0 run to start the second half. “That’s really what we needed because we’ve got young people. It’s an all new experience.”

And while a 43-point triumph certainly helped Hanceville in the confidence category, it won’t have Malcom resting on his laurels with so much basketball yet to be played.

“We should be feeling good,” he said. “But we’ve still got to get better.”

Coach Daniel Wakefield couldn’t have asked for much better production out of his litter of pups, who showed the future is still bright for the Bulldogs despite losing a healthy load of playmakers during the offseason.

Weissend did all of his damage from the point guard position, Jose Orozco flashed his speed with seven points and six rebounds, and sophomore C.J. White made a grand varsity entrance with six points and six boards. Kaine Yates transitioned to the hardwood with three points, and Dylan McMillian and Luke Duffie each tossed in two.

Sellers, a senior, heaped on the praise for the Purple and Gold’s new batch of contributors. Almost all were promoted from last year’s junior varsity squad.

“It’s really good they stepped up a little bit,” he said. “I’m really proud of them.”

Sellers’s compliments did come with a caveat. He settled with a “for the most part” when talking about how well the newcomers played, mentioning they still need to get used to the environment, work on their court vision and “just play instead of standing there in a daze.”

“A couple of them did that,” Sellers said with a laugh. “But they’re getting used to it slowly but surely.”

Hanceville’s physical brand of defense made it tough for Good Hope to ever get into any type of offensive rhythm. The Raiders went the entire second quarter without a field goal and finally broke their drought with a Reese Harbison layup with three minutes to go in the third quarter.

Mason Johnson led the Red and White with eight points. Other contributors included Tyler Vanderburg, six points; Eric Murphree, five; Harbison, Noah Tillman and Tyler Elrod, all four; and Jared McClure, three.

Despite the lopsided loss, coach Mike Jones was far from down on his kids. Good Hope does have six seniors on its roster, but most haven’t had much — or any — varsity playing time.

“I saw some good things out of my guys,” Jones said. “We are real inexperienced, and us shooting 17 percent showed that. We had open looks. Just got to hit them. We will start knocking them down. I’m still confident in my guys.”