EMPORIUM — It was the kind of start Marcus Brown had been hoping to see out of his Cameron County team.

After what he felt was a sluggish performance against Austin on Monday, the head coach of the Red Raiders emphasized to his team the need for higher energy and tempo ahead of the team’s matchup with Otto-Eldred on Thursday.

It showed, as the Red Raiders blitzed O-E out of the gates for a quick 13-point lead and then never looked back en route to a 59-45 win over the Terrors.

“Our message every game is high energy and high pace. We don’t always show it; we didn’t on Monday against Austin,” Brown said. “We really stressed it tonight — coming out energetic. Every time we say that, (the players) do, so I think we’ll say that a lot more every game. That was it — energy. That’s what it is for my guys.”

The Red Raiders (5-0), who never trailed, quickly jumped out to a 6-0 lead on a layup from Gavin Morton and then back-to-back two-pointers by Dylan Guisto.

That pair led Cameron County throughout the night, as Guisto scored a game-high 19 points and Morton chipped in 16 points.

Brown has been especially pleased with Morton’s performances as of late.

“He started out the season very slow. We weren’t getting what we wanted out of him, and we’ve been on him about it ever since,” the coach said. “And in the last two or three games, dating back to Coudersport, he’s gotten a lot better confidence-wise, and that’s all it is for him. He’s very gifted, he just needs more confidence. I think we saw that tonight.”

After Cole Sebastian got the Terrors (0-4) on the board with a layup, the Red Raiders went on an 11-2 run highlighted by back-to-back-to-back treys from Hayden Brown, Cam Allison and Guisto, who capped the run with another two-pointer to put the Red Raiders up 17-4.

“That’s always great to see,” Marcus Brown said of the sharpshooting. “We got to a point where we may have been going too fast, and it led to some points for them on the other end. But we got out of that funk real quick and started knocking down shots again. It’s always good to see.”

That run prompted a second O-E timeout, but by then the Terrors were in a hole they never managed to dig out of. However, the gap did close to as little as six early in the second quarter.

“When you come down and play a tough team, you have to be ready to play when you get off the bus,” said O-E head coach Steve Bell. “We clawed back into the game because we stayed positive and didn’t quit. The players didn’t quit.”

After that initial Cameron County outburst, the Terrors went on an 11-4 run that stretched into the early second quarter and clipped the Raider lead to 21-15. Four different O-E players scored during that span: Jake Merry (10 points), Sebastian, Gavin Jimerson (10 points) and Austin Cousins.

But from there, Cameron County flexed its muscle again and outscored O-E 17-6 the rest of the first half to take a 38-21 lead into halftime. The duo of Morton and Caden Beldin did the heavy lifting during that span, as Morton scored seven of his points during that run and Beldin added six of his nine points.

The key, according to Marcus Brown, was attacking the defenses O-E threw at the Red Raiders, specifically the zones.

“Our whole week was totally centered on breaking the 1-3-1, which we’re very familiar with against (O-E), and a 2-3. So we were prepared for it,” he said. “I was surprised they came out in man (to start the game), but they had to switch out of it pretty quickly, and we had the answer.”

The closest Otto-Eldred managed to get the rest of the way was 11 points, which happened with 2:16 left in the fourth quarter.

Cameron County faces a quick turnaround, as Johnsonburg comes to Emporium on Saturday. The Rams defeated the only team to beat the Red Raiders — Elk Catholic — and are 2-0 to start the season.

The Terrors, meanwhile, have lost four straight games to open the season, though the teams they’ve faced — Coudersport, Elk County Catholic, Bradford and Cameron County — have a combined 15-3 record.

“I think that (we need to) learn to be patient and to get good shots. We’re not disciplined enough yet… and rebounds killed us. They were on the offensive glass big time, and you can’t give up that many shots. We’re just not there yet,” Bell said.

Now, O-E is off until Tuesday, when it visits Smethport, giving the Terrors a little time to work out the early-season kinks.

“We’ll go home, look at the film, figure out where we’re weak and get better every day,” Bell said. “Right now, you fix something one day and then go play a game and apply it. That’s all you can do every day, and that’s the cycle we’ll be in the rest of the year.”

AT EMPORIUM

Otto-Eldred (45)

Gavin Jimerson 5 0-0 10, Jake Merry 4 1-2 10, Cousins 3 0-0 8, Splain 1 0-0 2, Bell 3 0-0 6, Sebastian 3 0-0 7, Maholic 1 0-0 2, Walker 0 0-2 0. Totals: 20 1-4 45

Cameron County (59)

Dylan Guisto 8 2-3 19, Gavin Morton 7 1-2 16, Brown 2 2-2 7, Beldin 4 1-4 9, Allison 1 3-4 6, Erickson 1 0-0 2. Totals: 23 9-15 59

Otto-Eldred 12 21 32 45

Cameron Co. 21 38 49 59

Three-point goals: O-E 4 (Cousins 2, Merry, Sebastian), CC 4 (Guisto, Brown, Allison, Morton); Total fouls: O-E 11, CC 7; fouled out: None.