Generally, a 31-point defeat isn’t cause for optimism.

Yet that was the case last Friday night after Lomega opened its season with a 9766 home win against Dover.

“That’s a team that if they can stay healthy and out of foul trouble, I can see them getting into the top-10 this year,” said Lomega coach Kevin Lewallen of the Lady Longhorns.

The coach of last season’s Class B state runners-up hasn’t heaped such praise the last few seasons.

In the 2019-20 season, the final margin was 84-33. They met twice in 2020-21 and Lomega won by 50 and 61 points.

Although last season’s margin of victory - 74-46 was closer, it was a 54-19 game at halftime.

Despite the one-sided affairs, Dover didn’t come out intimidated.

The Lady Longhorns even led through the early stages of the first quarter and went up 11-8 on an Ashley Gamez 3-pointer at 4:20.

Not long after, Lomega started to take command on its homecoming night.

Abby Swart scored five straight for the home team as part of a 13-0 run for a 23-12 advantage.

After Dover cut it to 2518, Swart buried her fourth 3-pointer of the first quarter to help the Lady Raiders close on a 5-0 run.

Swart scored 16 in the quarter and finished with a game-high 28.

Darcy Roberts, who was crowned homecoming queen prior to the game, added 26 points and scored at least five points every quarter.

Still, Dover never folded. The Lady Longhorns kept their deficit under 20 points at halftime.

Karlee Harviston scored seven of her team-high 21 points in the second quarter.

Dover got 15 from Gamez while Rylee Buck and Katelyn Harviston scored 12 apiece.

But Lomega’s depth proved something with which Dover couldn’t keep up.

Lewallen trotted out 11 different Lady Raiders in the first quarter.

Dover’s Matt Peck has just seven suited up and although Buck picked up her fourth foul in the second quarter, he didn’t go to his bench until the fourth.

“I was really proud of them for hanging in there,” Peck said after his team dropped to 1-1.

Thirteen different Lady Raiders scored, though Swart and Roberts were the only ones in double figures.

Freshman Jenny Penaran added eight points.