The sophomore showed that last season as a junior varsity player.

On Tuesday night, the 5-foot-9 guard picked up right where he left off, drilling seven shots from beyond the arc on his way to 23 points. In combination with 25 points, nine steals and eight assists from junior Drew Hind; and 12 points, five assists and four steals from junior Griffin Nelson, it was more than enough for the defending Class C state champions to knock off Chautauqua Lake 71-50 in a nonleague game.

Not bad for a team that starts five guards, none of whom that stand more than 6 feet tall.

Welcome to Coach Hind’s hoops world for the 2023-24 season.

Randolph’s Cooper Freeman makes a pass along the baseline while being defended by Chautauqua Lake’s Brendan Klossner (31) and Trent Houser (30) during Tuesday’s nonleague game in Randolph. P-J photo by Scott Kindberg

“We’re little,” he said. “We’re trying to figure out how we’re going to play. We’ve got five sophomores up from the jayvee team that are filling some pretty big shoes.”

So far, so good.

It was the Cardinals’ aggressiveness taking the ball to the hoop that gave them a 22-14 lead after the first quarter, a margin that grew to 40-23 at intermission. Drew Hind was the main reason as he poured in 23 first-half points, while McElwain connected on three treys on his way to 11 points.

“Kevin McElwain had several games last year where he hit five-plus 3s, so he can really shoot the ball, as he showed tonight,” Coach Hind said.

After the break, Randolph hit nine more 3-pointers — four from McElwain, two from Nelson, and one apiece from senior Roan Kelly, sophomore Cooper Freeman and sophomore Broden Brooks — to expand the lead to as many as 26.

“We’ve got the potential for good things,” Coach Hind said. “We’ll just try and get better.”

Despite the loss, first-year Chautauqua Lake coach Devin Pope was pleased with the effort his young team showed against a program that left Glens Falls in March with a state title.

“We knew coming in that (Randolph) were all good shooters, especially at home,” he said. “We did our best, but we started ball-watching too much. … They’re a good team. You can’t take anything away from them.”

Leading the way for Eagles were sophomore Trent Houser with 16 points, junior Brendan Klossner with 13 and sophomore Asher Olson with 10. Leading scorer Nick Jacobson, another sophomore, was limited to 6 points — all free throws — thanks to the Cardinals’ defensive effort.

“We weren’t setting him up to get him open,” Pope said. “We weren’t setting good screens to allow him to get space. We know it’s going to happen a lot. We just have to continue to work, make passes out of it and make the right reads.

“I’m proud of our guys. They played hard. I thought the score didn’t show how hard and how close the game seemed or how competitive it seemed. … They’re still a young group. I’ve got six sophomores who played critical minutes. We’ll get it going.”

Randolph returns to action Friday when it hosts Silver Creek. Chautauqua Lake doesn’t play again until it entertains Sherman on Monday.

CHAUTAUQUA LAKE (50)

Jacobson 0 6 6, Henry 2 1 5, Fairbanks 0 0 0, Gibbs 0 0 0, Freay 0 0 0, Olson 5 0 10, Abuhmeidan 0 0 0, Houser 7 0 16, Klossner 4 2 13. Totals 18 9 50.

RANDOLPH (71)

Morrison 0 0 0, Kelly 1 2 5, Hind 12 0 25, Nelson 5 0 12, McElwain 8 0 23, Freeman 1 0 3, Brooks 1 0 3, Huntington 0 0 0. Totals 28 2 71.

3-point goals–Houser 2, Klossner 3, Kelly, Hind, Nelson 2, McElwain 7, Freeman, Brooks.

Chautauqua Lake 14 9 14 13 — 50

Randolph 22 18 20 11 — 71