DAPHNE, Ala. – A post-season-sized crowd packed Trojan Gym gym on a rainy Monday night as the Trojans and Lady Trojans swept Vigor Monday night to open Daphne's 2010-11 season with wins.

The Daphne girls topped the Lady Wolves 42-36 after dominating at times, but fighting off strong VHS surges as well.

Junior Sierra Patterson and senior Amanda Patton led in scoring for Daphne with 10 points each. Amber Yelding added seven points, Kirsten Henton six, Kadesha Koen five and senior Cherilyn Ramsey who has not played since her freshman year put in four and pulled down key rebounds along with Henton, Patterson and Cherese Hunter. Ferris Mills led VHS with 16.

Daphne coach Cedric Yelding, who is leading the boys and girls this year, was generally pleased with the Lady Trojans start.

"With the girls making a transition to a whole lot faster (format) this year it was a little ugly out there at times. And it's going to be that away for a while until they get the system down. They pulled it off though and pulled away from Vigor at the end."

In the boys game, the Trojans took control of the game early, but the Wolves never laid down. Daphne still finished strong for the 51-46 win.

Yelding said he was proud of the boys for playing hard and not getting rattled when the Wolves came withing a point of tying in the fourth period.

"I'm extremely proud of the boys," he said. "They handled the pressure well and Vigor can bring some pressure. But I had a lot of seniors out there and they should have handled it and did. I was so happy to see so many people here on a rainy night. Everybody is pulling together."

Murphy transfer Tyler Birch looked very much at home as the senior point guard led the DHS offense with 16 points and a number of assists. Joe Menefee had 13, Preston Solomon 10, Vance Jenkins five, Dominique Crosby four and Rashad Jones three. Seanta Grimes led the Wolves with 18.

After leading by as much as six, 17-11, in the first quarter and six, 29-23, at the half. Daphne nearly lost the lead after a late 10-0 Vigor run.

"I just told them to keep playing defense and stay solid on offense," Yelding told his team in a time out. "I called a timeout and told the guys that basketball is a game of runs and that they could turn it around and they did. I'm especially proud of the defensive effort. I really thought tonight we had our best defensive effort in three years."