Harrison Central’s Cale McAfee goes up for a shot during the first quarter of Wednesday’s season opener against Indian Creek.

CADIZ — Throughout the summer and preseason, Justin Clifford has talked openly and often that the success of his Harrison Central Huskies will come down to how the supporting cast plays around junior leader Kobe Mitchell.

So far, so good for the Huskies.

Harrison Central got its usual production from Mitchell and solid help from Cruz Capers, Sam Santille and others to subdue Indian Creek for a 59-45 victory in a mutual season opener inside the Huskies’ new gymnasium.

“We had some guys step up and make some plays that we needed,” Clifford said.

Capers ignited the Huskies early, hitting a pair 3s in the first quarter and two more in the second. He finished with 17 points. Santille had only five, but he also patrolled the paint and was a factor on the glass.

“We’re going to need that from those guys,” Clifford said.

It was more about the defensive end, however, when Harrison Central was able to gain some separation from the Redskins, who are breaking in several new faces.

“Unlike in the first quarter, we actually attempted to guard someone,” Clifford said about the third quarter.

That wasn’t the case early when the Redskins surged to a 19-17 lead after one.

Harrison Central bounced back to take a 35-29 edge into halftime and then outscored Creek, 16-5, in the pivotal third. Mitchell, Santille and Capers all had multiple buckets.

The 17-point deficit after three was simply too deep for the Redskins to climb out of in the third, but they did get as close as 12.

“Our effort was there and our kids battled all night,” Indian Creek head coach Joe Dunlevy said. “We expect that from them and that’s what they’re giving us in practice. We’ll keep working at it.”

Mitchell, who is the reigning Eastern District Division II Player of the Year, opened his season with a solid 26 points, but he didn’t have his best shooting night.

“He can get you in a number of ways,” Clifford said. “We’ll get him going soon. He still had 20-some and we’re trying to get him going. I thought he was a little bit too unselfish at times, but that’s how he likes to play.”

Also turning in a solid effort for the Huskies was foreign exchange student Alexis Flor, who scored six points and showed flashes that he could emerge into another solid contributor.

Indian Creek (0-1) quite simply is going to go back to work today to begin preparations for a trip to Buckeye Local on Tuesday.

“We’re going to try to correct the things that we did wrong,” Dunlevy said. “Our attention to detail has to be better. We were prepared some of the things they do with Mitchell, but there were other times it didn’t look like we were, so our attention to detail, in practice, has to be better because it’s a fine line for us to have a chance to win games or not win games.”

The Redskins were led by Mike Kuczykowski and Isaiah Vandine, who evenly divided 20.

Harrison Central is off until a week from today when it travels to Bellaire.