TRENTON — Being back at home is sometimes the perfect elixir. The Trenton High boys basketball team certainly felt that way Friday night after being on the road for six straight games, putting together four complete quarters for only the second time this season, according to coach Darryl Young, as the Tornadoes toppled Robbinsville, 66-52. “They’re still learning,” Young said. “One of my big things with my kids I always tell ‘em: You play the way you practice. I’m a firm believer in that.” While Trenton (4-4) did return several varsity players from last season, this is still a relatively young team. So it’s only natural see inconsistencies and spurts of good play, but Young has been preaching more effort from his players in practice and conveying the message that they can’t expect to simply turn it on in games. The Tornadoes responded from a 62-52 loss Thursday night at Hunterdon Central with a strong defensive performance where they forced about nine turnovers in the first half. Robbinsville (5-3) trailed by double digits at halftime and never fully recovered. Junior Juan Sanchez dropped 23 points including a career-high five 3-pointers, and junior Aivaye Ingram notched a career-high 22 points to lead the way. “Home court advantage. This is where I practice at, so it just felt normal,” Sanchez said. “Shooting around before the game — when JV was playing — in the other gym, yeah, I kind of felt (a big performance coming).” Sanchez had more ball-handling and shooting responsibilities than usual because senior Thomas Munoz was out with an injury from the previous game. “We look to him, but I knew I had to step up,” Sanchez said. “I had a big role tonight. I was ready.” As for Ingram, the team has been encouraging the 6-foot-3 guard to stay aggressive and unlock his do-it-all potential with ball-handling, passing, rangy defense and versatile scoring. “This was Aivaye’s best game of the season,” Young said. “I was looking for him to break out. He can be the surprise player of the year if he can just be coachable and he listens. My biggest thing with Aivaye is just getting him to mature. You can see spurts.” Young opted for a bigger starting lineup because of Munoz’s absence and threw in a wrinkle defensively by opening the game in a zone defense. Markese Dowling and Kaleb Smith played key roles in the middle, often grabbing rebounds and blocking shots when Robbinsville got dribble penetration. “I looked at my coach and said, ‘It’s not very often we come into Trenton and they’re sitting in a 2-3 zone,’” Robbinsville coach Conor Hayes said. “But they got out of that really quick and got back to their ways. We just weren’t ready to play as tough as you need to to win here, and credit to them. They came out, they hit shots, they rebounded hard, they played great defense, they played unselfish. So it was nice to watch another well-coached Trenton team perform at a high level.” Robbinsville’s star junior forward, Tyler Bunnell, finished with 21 points, but Trenton made him work for most of those in the second half when the game was out of hand. And the Ravens came in averaging almost six made 3-pointers per game, yet their only one against Trenton came from Matt Boss with 6:50 remaining. “We had to lock in defensively,” Sanchez said. “When we play defense, that’s when we play at our best and get transition buckets.” That’s been Trenton’s hallmark for decades and 10 seasons under Young. The head man had to remind his players in the middle of Friday’s game when the pace slowed down that they needed to push the tempo. Running an effective halfcourt offense is important, of course, especially when you get to the state tournament. But Young believes that defense has to be the engine of Trenton’s offense right now as the team develops. And yet despite some growing pains, Trenton has already shown high potential by starting 2-0 in the CVC’s loaded Colonial Division with a win over Notre Dame as well. “For us to be successful, for us to make a state run and get to the state tournament — just to have a good season, a winning season — we’ve got to play defense. It’s not there yet,” Young said. “I feel we’ll get there, but still got some growing to do. It was a good win tonight though.” Robbinsville, meanwhile, is also relatively young, but with more varsity newcomers who are looking to gel as the season goes on and take advantage of this being one of the most athletic teams in school history. “The focus on this group is the process of learning what it takes to practice, learning what it takes to compete, learning what it takes to know your scouting report inside out, and execute on game night,” Hayes said. “We’re hoping still to be playing our best basketball at the right time.” ROBBINSVILLE (52) Bunnell 7-7-21, Rodolphe 1-0-2, Pagano 3-1-7, Hopkins 1-0-2, Butler 3-1-7, Kaber 3-0-6, Boss 2-0-5, Lustik 0-1-1, Belardino 0-1-1. Totals — 20-11-52. TRENTON (68) Dixon 4-2-12, Smith 3-1-7, Sanchez 8-2-23, Ingram 9-3-22, Genoa 1-0-2, Crawley 1-0-2. Totals — 26-8-68. Robbinsville (5-3) 10 13 13 16 — 52 Trenton (4-4) 19 14 18 17 — 68 3-point goals: Boss (R), Sanchez 5, Dixon 3, Ingram (T).