Roosevelt's Jayden Metcalf (24) drives on Westview's Dayton Jenkins (2) during Friday's LSI opener at Portland State.

The Roosevelt Roughriders put one in the win column Friday morning.

Andrew Kim finished with 12 points, 11 rebounds, and five blocked shots to help pace Roosevelt to a 63-58 victory over the Westview Wildcats, kicking off the 29th Les Schwab Invitational basketball tournament at Portland State University’s Stott Center.

Jayden Metcall scored 12 points and Ty’velle Hill added 10 points, six assists and four steals as the Roughriders (1-3) snapped a three-game losing streak to open the season.

“I think we had really great hustle from the start,” said Kim, Roosevelt’s 6-foot-7 senior. “We came out, we showed them that, and then kept on going. It feels really good to win, especially in the LSI to get a ‘W’ like that. We’re pretty excited.

“This is a really important win — the first of many.”

There were seven lead changes in the first half, which ended with Roosevelt leading 22-21. The Roughriders then used a 16-6 run to extend their lead to 45-33 with just under a minute to play in the third quarter and held on from there, ending Westview’s four-game win streak.

“Our game still isn’t where I want it to be,” Roosevelt coach Jamarr Lawson said. “We’ve got to understand how to close games. Those last three or four minutes of the fourth quarter, we just didn’t do a good job of taking care of the basketball and we didn’t do a good job of executing the game plan.

“It feels good to put one in the win column. And whether it’s an ugly win or a pretty one, I’m starting to see a lot of growth in a lot of different players on our team.”

Westview (5-2) put on a late run and cut the deficit to five points when Ian Bautista hit a driving layup that made it 57-52 with 1:20 remaining.

Dayton Jenkins then hit a pull-up jumper that lifted the Wildcats within 58-54 with 44 seconds left, but Roosevelt turned around and went 5-for-6 at the free-throw line in the closing 38 seconds to put the game out of reach.

Westview coach Mike Wolf chalked up Friday’s game as a good learning experience.

“Hopefully, we have a better sense of speed and pace and poise and balance with the ball after that,” Wolf said. “I mean, we want to be aggressive, but we were just a little sloppy in some of our decision-making.”

Wolf was most annoyed by Westview’s 19 turnovers, many of which turned into easy, transition baskets for the two-time, defending Portland Interscholastic League-champion Roughriders.

“Those live-ball turnovers are hard,” Wolf said. “If they go out of bounds, we can set the defense. But when the ball gets poked away and there’s a loose ball, the next thing you know it’s half way down the court and on its way to rim.”

It also didn’t help that Bautista was off his game due to a recent illness and finished with seven points on 2-for-16 shooting for the field, including 0-for-8 shooting from beyond the arc.

Said Wolf: “Some of that was Roosevelt’s defense, some it was just the game and/or the situation, and some of it was Ian just not being 100 percent. A little bit uncharacteristic for us.”

Jenkins, Westview’s 6-2 senior, finished with a game-high 16 points, 12 rebounds, and five steals, while Dash Nicely had 14 points and six rebounds, and Justin Cheng chipped in 11 points and six rebounds.

“For some of the guys, this is their first experience in this kind of game,” said Wolf, whose team got relegated to Saturday’s 10:30 a.m. consolation game against Gresham. “Hopefully, they learn from that and use it against Gresham. 

“We just played Gresham last week, so there’s some familiarity there, but they’ll be similar (to Roosevelt) in terms of length and athleticism and disruptive defense, and my hope is we can execute a little better and take care of the ball.”

Neither Westview nor Roosevelt bears much resemblance to the two teams that clashed in last year’s OSAA 6A playoffs — a second-round game that the Wildcats won 83-71 en route to an appearance in the state semifinals.

Westview graduated seven seniors from last season’s Metro League championship team, including all five starters. But most of the rebuilding that has taken place since then has been done with players who were already in the program and waiting their turn.

“The general public sees two kids (Bautista and Jenkins) who saw any meaningful minutes last year, so they think these kids just don’t have experience,” Wolf said. “But they went head-to-head with last year’s starters and some days toward the end of the season, they would beat ‘em. And that’s a team that made it to the Final Four.

“We’re definitely not shooting at the same level we did a year ago, but this team plays defense at the same level we did last year when we led the state in scoring defense, so I’m excited about that.”

Roosevelt also is retooling. The Roughriders not only graduated four seniors from last year’s 20-7 team, but they also lost several key players who decided to transfer, including August Frantz and Syrius Owens to Clackamas, JeMel Baker to Centennial, Adrian Montague to Parkrose, and Jamarea Sanders to Grant.

“We’ve just been rolling with the punches,” Lawson said of the turnover. “We have a new, young group that’s learning through experience how to play at a high level. We have a sophomore class that I think is really going to make a difference in the future of our team. But we also have a lot of seniors who I feel are underrated, but really hungry, athletic, and special, so I’m really excited about this team.

“It’s a challenge, but our biggest thing has been wanting guys that want to be here and want to be where their feet are. I think this is just a very unique and tough environment for basketball, just in general. I think everybody experiences this to some degree, so you’ve got to have a great system for people to be able to excel in.”

Roosevelt was good enough to reach the 6A championship final against Central Catholic two years ago. And Lawson is confident that the Riders can make another deep playoff run; if not this season, soon.

“I think every system has to have expectations,” Lawson said. “It’s just about when are they going to materialize, right? Like I’ve said, we’re very immature, very inexperienced. Even our returning varsity players didn’t get a lot of time on the floor, and that’s the experience you need to get through some of those growing pains. 

“So, we’re going to take some lumps and bruises, but we’re going to get back in that gym and continue to work on the things we need to work on to get better.”

What happened Friday against Westview that maybe didn’t happen in the previous three games?

“We saw the ball go through the rim a lot more,” Lawson said. “We rebounded a little better, but we still gave up 20 offensive rebounds, which is unacceptable. I think we’re moving the ball a lot better, we’re getting up the floor in transition, and we’re making the early passes. Before, our offense looked really stagnant.”

Said Kim: “Today, we were all locked in. We showed up early this morning, got to work, watched some film, and were ready to play.”

Lucas Moreira and Juma Whatley scored eight points each and Cameron Harris chipped in five points off the bench for the Riders, who shot 47.8 percent (22 for 46) from the field the Westview’s 37.5 percent (21 for 56).

“We’re definitely seeing progress in this team,” Lawson said. “I was really happy about our practices over the winter break. Guys have been showing up at 6:30 a.m. and putting in the work and coming back to put up extra shots. So, they’re doing the things that will move the needle. So, I like where we’re at right now and I like where we’re heading.”

So, which team does Lawson expect to set the pace in the PIL this season?

“To be honest, it’s wide open,” he said. “I like how Benson is looking. Jefferson is looking hungry again. And Grant has some new, young talent. At the end of the day, it’s about who can put the best brand of basketball together for four quarters, because I think we’re all dealing with some inexperience.”