STEENS — Domination is one way to put Tuesday’s performance from Columbus Christian Academy basketball.

Hosting Hebron Christian, the Rams did not hold back, throwing the kitchen sink at the Eagles in the first halves of both games.

Some fantastic performances from the starters put games out of reach very early, allowing head coach Billy Thomas to empty his bench and get everyone minutes.

Even with bench players out on the floor, CCA didn’t let up, pressuring Hebron on both sides of the floor en route to a 61-22 win for the girls and a 56-38 win for the boys.

“Hebron has improved a lot over the past few years, and we knew that going in,” Thomas said. “We felt like if we could pressure them with our full-court press, turn around and get the ball down low, it would be tough to handle.”

The girls got things started on the night for the Rams, and it was the Faith Yeates show from the jump, with the sophomore scoring 11 of her team-leading 16 points in the first quarter.

Yeates barely played in the second and third quarters, making her productivity on the floor that much impressive in such a short amount of time.

“It was just good teamwork and good plays,” Yeates said. “We’re doing a lot better than last year, and we’re coming together as a family.”

CCA’s passing game was working well, but more importantly, the Rams were getting countless fastbreak opportunities against a Hebron team missing several of its starters.

The frontcourt mismatches proved to be critical for the Eagles (2-9), who not only couldn’t stop the fast break but couldn’t prevent CCA from getting easy baskets down low in normal half-court sets.

“I knew it was going to be tough,” Hebron head coach Todd Stanton said. “We got beat in transition a lot. We had trouble getting back on balls, and we’ve struggled on the boards all season, including tonight.”

The boys game followed much the same pattern, but while the girls game more gradually got out of hand, the Rams took care of things immediately in the first quarter, jumping out to a 26-5 lead.

Everything was working for CCA (15-4) with Joe Michael Edwards stealing the show from the perimeter. The full-court press proved to be just as effective for the boys, leading to plenty of easy baskets and open looks offensively.

Edwards was lights out from the start, knocking down his first three 3-pointers and scoring 11 points in the first quarter.

“I’m always going to look for my teammates first before I look to shoot, but if I have the open shot, I’m going to take it,” Edwards said. “You’ve got to get open looks to win the game.”

At that point, leading by such a wide margin, the Rams began to empty the bench.

Hebron was able to keep pace with CCA, not letting the lead get above 30 points, but the Eagles couldn’t find a way to get things going, even against the Rams’ reserves.

However, the game never got out of hand in favor of CCA as Hebron (0-11) fought hard despite an 18-point loss.

“We fought,” Hebron head coach Charles Raines said. “That was the big thing. We fought, we played hard. These guys played probably one of the hardest games of the season that I’ve seen us play. A lot of it is just improvement.”

The win was a big one for the Rams to stabilize and get back at it, recently coming off a tough loss against a high-powered West Memphis Christian (Arkansas) team that was able to pull away late.

CCA couldn’t keep up and was gassed toward the end of regulation in that game, so come playoff time, every player for the Rams needs to be ready to contribute.

They were more than ready on Tuesday to do just that.

“It’s huge because down the stretch, you never know what’s going to happen,” Thomas said. “Come tournament time, getting some of those bench guys minutes is massive. Games like this really help.”

The Rams and Eagles both return to the floor Friday, with CCA traveling to play Delta Academy and Hebron traveling to play Regents School of Oxford.