File photo – Aaiden Burris returned to the St. Bernard’s lineup on Thursday night.

Early in the season, the St. Bernard’s boys are embracing the team concept and it’s paying dividends.

On Thursday, the Crusaders opened the Mt. Shasta tournament with a comfortable 78-24 win over Etna and improved to 4-0 on the season.

But it’s the way they’re playing as a team that has most impressed head coach Issac Gildea.

“We’ve been sharing the ball this year extremely well,” he said. “Every single player on the team is sharing the ball and it’s making our team click.”

The Crusaders welcomed back Aaiden Burris on Thursday after the senior standout missed the first few games of the campaign while he recovered fully from an injury he suffered late in the football season, and he had an immediate impact.

Burris scored a team-high 20 points in the win and also pulled down six rebounds.

Teammate Seth Dyer continued to impress and had 16 points to go with five assists and four boards, while Wyatt Simoni added 14 points on 6-of-6 shooting, as well as three rebounds, three assists and a couple of steals.

Liam Dyer also had a big night and finished with 14 points, eight assists and three steals.

But it was the team defense that really stole the show, as the Crusaders held their opponents to just four points in each of the second, third and fourth quarters.

Freshman Garrett Shanahan was once again a force on the boards and continued his outstanding start to his high school career with a team-best nine rebounds.

The Crusaders will continue tournament play on Friday when they play Mt. Shasta at 8:30 p.m.

“We still have a lot of things we can work on as a team,” Gildea said.