Red-hot Union won its Section 1-A opener.

And it did it with some help off the bench.

Senior John Hilke, who came into the game with a career-high of six points and a 3.3 points per game average, tickled the twine for 15 points, all coming on 3-point field goals, in the Scotties’ 86-59 rout at Western Beaver.

“John really shot the ball well,” Union coach Dave Smialowski said. “He made some big 3s. He and Wayne Seamans (nine points) came off the bench and really provided us with a lot of points.”

So did Union’s usual high scorers of Markel Peace (29 points), Joe Salmen (10 points, six assists) and Benjamin Young (10 points, seven rebounds). The Scotties finished with 11 3-point field goals on the night, including three from Peace.

Union (1-0, 9-1) led 17-5 after one quarter and 44-15 at the half.

“We actually got off to a little bit of a slow start the first couple of minutes — we hadn’t played in over a week and we were a little rusty — then we picked up the pressure and things started to go our way,” Smialowski said. “It was a good performance overall, I was pretty pleased.”

Nick Miller led Western Beaver (0-1, 2-8) with 29 points.