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The Nederland Bulldogs boys basketball team is off to a scorching start after beating Little Cypress-Mauriceville 46-42 Tuesday to improve to 6-0 on the season.

The contest gave LCM its first loss, dropping to 4-1.

“I thought it was a good game as far as the competition part of it,” Nederland head coach Brian English said. “I don’t think we played particularly well. It was low scoring. Our point guard was out with a virus. That kind threw us for a little loop, but we adjusted and played a little defense and found a way to win.”

English has been pleasantly surprised with his team’s performance.

“It’s been a really good start,” he said. “Kids have kind of surprised us, and our defensive play has been really good. It is definitely ahead of our offensive play. Hopefully, we can get a spark somewhere and score some more points. Right now, our defense is why we are winning games.”

The Bulldogs have only scored more than 60 points once this season and have scored fewer than 50 points three times in the first six games.

Bulldogs senior big man Tyler Jackson has been off to a hot start. Against Houston Madison on Nov. 27, Jackson dropped 25 points and grabbed 10 boards and four blocks. Three days prior, he added 19 points in a 44-29 win over Hardin-Jefferson.

“The first five games he played really well,” English said. “He struggled a bit (against LCM), but some of the other kids picked it up for him. He’s working and getting better in practice and that is all we can ask from him.”

Junior point guard Charles Olsen has played well, too, English said.

“He got some minutes last year on varsity,” he said. “His play has been very good. He’s rebounding the ball for us and making the right decisions and actually playing really well. We are a little surprised by that. We knew he was really good, but his stats are kind of popping off the chart right now.”

The Bulldogs play Vidor Friday before taking on Hamshire-Fannett on Saturday. Both games will be at home for Nederland, with the Friday contest starting at 7 p.m. and the game against H-F tipping off at 6 p.m. Saturday.

“I knew we were going to be pretty good, but right now, you are usually finding ways to lose,” he said. “We haven’t done that yet. Luckily, the kids have played well and they are believing. We just have to put some things together.”