Greene Central’s Imajae Dodd slams home two of his 16 points during the Rams’ 70-52 win over Eastern Wayne. Photo by William ‘Bud’ Hardy / Neuse News

SNOW HILL — The first night of the Blue Edwards Era provided nothing but smiles and excitement for the Greene Central faithful.

The Rams defeated Eastern Wayne 70-52 Tuesday in the season-opener behind a balanced scoring effort. Nine players scored for Greene Central (1-0), led by Hysaan Hudson’s 17 points and Imajae Dodd’s 16 as the Rams look to emulate the success of the previous two years.

Greene Central has compiled a combined 52-9 record the past two seasons, including the team’s first trip to the NCHSAA 2A championship game in the 2017-18 campaign.

“We’re getting off to a good start and hopefully we can keep the momentum,” Dodd said. “We’ve got a lot of young guys, but we’ve got a lot of talent so we’ll see what happens.”

One of the younger players, junior Kentrell Suggs, said he feels confident in the team’s abilities to make it back to the state title game with Tuesday’s victory helping in the process.

“It feels amazing to get this win,” Suggs said. “I feel like if we can continue to build our chemistry, we can go back.”

Overall, Edwards said he liked how the Rams played and with a tough week ahead there was a solid base.

“I saw a lot of energy, a lot of effort, guys trying to play the right way (and) doing all the things we practiced,” Edwards said. “I was a little nervous because it’s the first game and some of these guys haven’t been starters (or) played a lot, but I think tonight they handled it well.

“We played well as a team — we got a lot of things accomplished, but also from a coach’s standpoint I saw quite a few things we still need to work on.”

Greene Central will host last year’s NCHSAA 4A Eastern Regional-runner up South Central on Tuesday before traveling to face Farmville Central Friday in a rematch of last season’s fourth round playoff match, won by the Rams 67-54.

GREENE CENTRAL 70, EASTERN WAYNE 52

EW 6 10 14 22 — 52

GC 13 21 15 21 — 70

EASTERN WAYNE — Devin Brown 12, Wesley Case 10, Thomas 9, Clark 9, Mills 4, Spears 3, Henry 3, Best 2

GREENE CENTRAL — Hysaan Hudson 17, Imajae Dodd 16, Suggs 9, Johnson 7, Pridgen 7, Corbitt 5, Gay 5, Taylor 3, Finch 1

Three pointers: EW — Case 2, Thomas 2, Clark 2, Henry. GC — Suggs 2, Hudson, Taylor, Gay, Corbitt, Johnson.