Experience will continue to drive the Carlynton boys' basketball team.

After graduating six seniors, Cougars' coach Hal Minford will turn to a skilled group of juniors and seniors as well as a promising sophomore class to compete in Section 3-AA.

"We have a lot of kids who have been around and have playing experience," said Minford, who enters his fifth year at the helm of the program. "We have some different type of players but they are all team players.

"These guys look for the open man and make the pass; they're all very unselfish. This is probably the most unselfish team I have ever coached."

Carlynton (2-1) opened its schedule with a pair of victories in the South Side Beaver Tipoff tournament. The Cougars topped Avella Friday night, 65-50, and followed up with a 73-43 romp over South Side Beaver on Saturday.

"The first night we were a little sluggish," Minford said. "On the second night, I saw some good things from our offense and defense. I also saw some things that we need to clean up, but to start out 2-0 is all you can ask for at this point."

Duane Berry, a 6-foot-1 senior guard, paced the Cougars' scoring over the weekend with 23 points against Avella and 21 against South Side Beaver. Junior guard Jake Howard contributed with double-digit assists in both games, while senior forward Matt Walkowiak (6-5) tossed in 17 points in just 12 minutes of play against South Side Beaver.

"We moved the ball well and we shared the ball," Minford said. "It was a total team effort. We had 11 guys in the scoring book both nights. We got a good framework on offense. The guys are sharing the ball and learning their roles."

The Cougars lost, 70-61, to Class AAA Ambridge Monday in a non-section game.

Last year, Carlynton was one of the WPIAL's top scoring teams, averaging 63.6 points. The Cougars finished 12-10 overall but went just 6-8 to place fifth in Section 3-AA.

After opening the year with an impressive 10-2 start, they struggled down the stretch and went 4-8, including seven section losses.

"What happened was Matt Walkowiak, who was a three-year starter, had tendinitis in his knees and had to take two weeks off in January," Minford explained. "We started to struggle physically and began having other issues to deal with. We lost a lot of cohesion and lacked inside play."

Minford graduated starting guards Greg Koritsky and Ryan McGrogan but returned a strong core of players with game experience.

The Cougars will rely on starters Berry, Howard and Walkowiak as well as junior guard Ryan Laepelle (5-8) and forward Ryan Howard (5-9). Minford will also turn to junior forward Luis Garcia, who missed all of last season with a torn ACL, and junior guard Tristan Adams to come off the bench.

"We don't have a freshmen program, so first-year players are thrown in with our junior varsity and varsity players," Minford said. "Those guys get a lot of valuable experience and they have made great strides [because of that experience].

"With the starters we have now, they've been involved with the varsity play for three years and it's been effective."

That's one reason why Minford remains optimistic about some of his younger players.

"I've been impressed with the sophomore class," he said. "We rotated a few in over the weekend. Although some of these kids saw limited time in JV games last year, they still had a great summer and worked very hard on a daily basis.

"They're all getting better because of the work they've put forward."

Still, Minford expects section play to be Carlynton's biggest obstacle this season.

"We play in one of the toughest sections in the WPIAL," he said. "North Catholic came out [last year] and won the WPIAL and you know South Fayette can win [the section] again. I like to call the section the ACC of high school basketball.

"It's definitely a grind and there's no nights off. There are a lot of great coaches and they all like to be very well prepared. They know what to expect no matter what you run at them."

The Cougars open section play tomorrow night when they play host to Fort Cherry.

"We have to be consistent with our inside game and outside," said Minford, whose team last qualified for the playoffs in 2007. "We didn't have an inside game at all last year. We were banged up and nicked up here and there, so we had to focus our effort on our shooting."

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