Badin and Madeira met twice last season, with the Rams winning both times, the second in a Division III boys basketball sectional championship game.

That was a different Badin team than the one that faced the Mustangs in the Rams’ season-opener Saturday. Eight players graduated, leaving coach Nick Argentati with a youthful 2012-2013 roster featuring two seniors. Their lack of experience was clearly evident as they committed 17 turnovers in their 67-43 non-conference loss to Madeira at Badin.

That Badin struggled with some jitters didn’t surprise Argentati.

“A lot of that is inexperience,” Argentati said. “(Junior guard) Cameron Mohr was the only guy who played any varsity minutes last season. They were a little wide-eyed.”

Mohr led the Rams with 12 points, nine on three 3-pointers. Freshman guard Zach Larkin was right behind with 11. Eight of Badin’s 14 field goals were 3-pointers, which wasn’t enough to offset the hot-shooting Mustangs, who connected on 11 3-pointers, including four by senior Andrew Benintendi on his way to a game-high 26 points.

“We’ve got to get better defensively,” said Argentati, another problem he traced to Badin’s inexperience. “We’ve got to make shots. We’re going to be a perimeter team – hopefully not as much as we were tonight – but we don’t have that 6-foot-5 guy in the middle.”

Badin had more turnovers – five – than points – four – while the Mustangs were building a 7-0 lead on their way to taking a 15-4 lead into the second quarter. Larkin scored all four of the Rams’ first-quarter points, including their first points of the season on a 15-foot jumper after tracking down his own miss with 2:22 left in the first quarter, and seven in the half.

Madeira (2-0) led by as many as 27, 60-33, on a Benintendi 3-pointer with 7:47 left in the game.

“We (scrimmaged) Hamilton last week, and that was a two-point game with two minutes left, so I consider this a step back,” Argentati said. “We’ll be alright. It’s going to take s little work. We’ll see where we are at the end of the year.”

Badin is scheduled to play another non-conference game at Northwest on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.