The game went about as expected, and Trevor Neider’s emotions were just as predictable in his first game back at Mountain Pointe.

Top-ranked Hamilton took apart the Pride in a 69-29 win in a game that wasn’t as close as the score would suggest on Friday as Neider coached against the Pride, a program he led to five 20-win seasons in six years.

“I know it would be a little bit odd, but it was good seeing everybody” Neider said. “Then when we lined up for the National Anthem I felt like I was on the wrong side, and the wrong locker room before the game. It was good overall. I met a lot of great people who I will never forget or lose touch with in my time here.”

The Pride lost touch with the Huskies pretty quickly as Hamilton came out strong, spread the ball around, used the motion offense to near perfection in building a 28-6 first quarter lead.

Eight different players scored in the first quarter for Hamilton (18-2, 13-0 versus Arizona opponents) while the Pride (10-9) has six players score all game long.

“We have pretty good athletes and go pretty deep,” Neider said. “We try to pressure and push, and we shot the ball pretty well.”

It was 53-20 at the half and when the Husky offense slowed it down in the second half out of respect the defense kicked in as the Pride scored just two points in the third quarter as the Huskies extended the lead to 65-22.

It wasn’t an easy game for the Pride players as they had to shake hands with and compete against their former mentor.

“It was really hard playing against him,” senior guard Danielle Burns said. “I wanted to walk over and ask him what I should do and for help. I was proud to see him doing a good job coaching and was happy to see him and my Dad (DeWaine, the Hamilton JV coach) coaching together again.”

Mountain Pointe was led by Bailey Osmer as she had 10 for the Pride.

The Huskies were led by Kayla Filiere’s 19 and Maddie Fredrick’s 14, while Cardi Harris added 11.

“The first half I was surprised by the score,” Filiere said. “The game was going so fast. It was back and forth, up and down the court. It seemed like it was a lot closer than it actually was. No matter what the score is we are always going to play hard.”