The Del Norte boys withstood an early onslaught by the visiting Hoopa Warriors in H-DNL basketball on Wednesday night, running out to a comfortable 81-51 win.

Edwin Zepeda led the way offensively for Del Norte, finishing with 21 points, while teammate Judson Pincombe added 20 points and Kaleb Price had a double-double, with 10 points and 10 rebounds.

Defensively, the Del Norte boys had their hands full early on against a Hoopa team coached by Hoopa legend Augie Valdez.

“Coach Valdez has those kids coming out believing and playing hard,” Del Norte head coach Marc Slayton said of Hoopa, which scored 17 points in the opening quarter. “We had a little gut check, and the kids responded well.”

Konner Price added 12 points in the win.

With the victory, Del Norte improved to 2-0, while the Hoopa boys were playing their first game of the new season.

“I would say for our first game, I thought we did pretty well,” Valdez said. “We came out strong. We were leading for a good portion of the first quarter, then the wind got to us.”

Hoopa’s two seniors Larry Tracy and Daniel Minton each had goods games, as did the team’s two starting sophomores, Brendan Baldy and Lane Campbell.