PETERSBURG — Their third-ever game.

Their second-ever win.

Their first-ever home game - and first-ever home game win.

After two games on the road to open their inaugural season, the new Petersburg Revolution basketball team in their third-ever matchup took back the lead in the second half and pulled away from the visiting RDU Raptors to win 102-86 in front of the home crowd at Rock Church of Petersburg.

"This is the best win of the year so far because we went through so much adversity at the beginning of the year, so to have our first win at home was great," DeShon Dabbs said after the game.

"It was so important for us to get this home win because of all the controversy that we've been through as a team," said Petersburg Revolution head coach Kyle Dixon. "We had to work hard to put things together in the right place, and it just so happens that we're blessed to get this facility."

Demond Hickman, who led the Revolution with 20 points, knew this win would be big for the community.

"Teamwork makes the dream work, so as long as we stay together, we can win the whole thing - we can win this thing," Hickman said. "We're here to set the ECBL on fire, that's what we're here for. I feel like we're the best team in the ECBL and we're here to prove it."

The Revolution earned the victory in their first-ever home game over a Raptors organization that has been together for three-plus years. Dixon noted that they are "a great team, a playoff team."

"[They've] never seen us before, and to win this game, it's phenomenal," Dixon said. "There's no way to match how I feel right now besides when I had my son ... this moment right now means a lot and everybody left it on the court. That's what it's about."

Dabbs said that even a player on the Raptors said they liked the way the Revolution played in the middle of the game.

"That's a compliment. We'll just continue to push through all adversity," Dabbs said. "That's our motivation right now: adversity."

The Revolution took command early on, leading 10-4, but the Raptors started finding their groove from behind the arc, keeping Petersburg at a single-digit lead at the end of the first quarter. John Holleman slammed in the big dunk for Petersburg late in the first.

A three-pointer by the Raptors sent the visitors to the point in the second, and RDU at one point held a 34-27 lead before Petersburg charged back to tie it up at 48. A three-pointer by Raptors player Robert Espinosa had the Revolution trailing 48-51 at halftime. Dabbs contributed another dunk for Petersburg during the second quarter.

The Revolution would turn it around in the second half, as Dixon pointed to their focus on getting back to the basics.

"We were trying to do too much," Dixon said. They cleaned up at halftime and started going back to the basics. He added of the improvements that the Revolution made: "We started defending."

"We kind of died out for a good maybe two minutes, then we had a little pep talk - point guard got us right, coach got us right," Dabbs said. "We came back with the intensity."

The Raptors' offense cooled down compared to their hot shooting in the second quarter, and the Revolution made key rebounds early in the third with Hickman netting two points to put Petersburg back in the lead at 52-51.

"I was just wanted to make sure as a team we want to put more emphasis on the boards because I know that's what wins games - defensive rebounding. I really was stressing that, but as a team we were all stressing that at halftime," Hickman said.

The Revolution kept rolling in the third quarter, leading the Raptors 64-56 before a timeout was called. RDU came back with five points, but Tommie Starkes knocked down a couple of three-pointers to help keep Petersburg on top as they led 74-69. Four straight free throw points from Reggie Cherry grew the Revolution's advantage to 82-72; Petersburg retained control throughout the remainder of the contest with Dabbs scoring points 100, 101 and 102 for the Revolution on the three-pointer.

The Revolution's talent ran deep from the starting lineup and throughout the bench as three players scored in the double digits, six made eight or more points and 13 got onto the scoreboard. Seven Revolution players rebounded five times or more.

"The funny thing about it - we have 16 starters on our teams," Dixon said, noting their players' approaches of humbling their selves to be better teammates for one another and to play for each other.

Hickman led the Revolution with 20 points and added seven rebounds. He went 7-of-11 from the field. Holleman earned the double-double, scoring 16 points and leading Petersburg with 11 boards. He went 6-of-11 from the field.

Starkes scored 12 points, followed by Earl Gee II with nine and Reggie Cherry and David Early with eight apiece. Starkes went 5-of-7 from the field. Cherry made all eight of his points on free throws.

Daniel Eacho had six rebounds and Starkes, Lorenzo Bailey, Tyre Desmore and Darnell Jenkins all had five rebounds. James Shambley had four. Gee and Desmore each contributed four assists.

Hitting three's for the Revolution were Gee (2), Starkes (2), Bailey, Dabbs, Shambley and Will Mackey.

Espinosa led the Raptors with 18 points, followed by Cor J Cox with 16, Will Griffin and Chris Lightner with nine apiece and Tosh Hill and Rayvon Terrill with eight apiece. Espinosa earned the double-double on 18 points and 11 rebounds. Darius Leonard also had 11 rebounds. Lightner had five.

The Revolution is now 2-1 and hits the road next week to play the Fort Gordon Eagles on the road (Saturday, April 9) at Cyber Fitness Center, 2 p.m. They are back home at Rock Church of Petersburg on Saturday, April 16 to host the Carolina MPact at 3 p.m.

The Basketball Tournament

Players from the Petersburg Revolution have the opportunity to compete in the 2016 edition of The Basketball Tournament. TBT includes a $2 million winner-takes-all grand prize, double the amount from 2015, and four times more than 2014’s prize. The top 100 fans of the winning team will split $200,000 (10 percent of the ​the total prize) - also double what the fans of 2015’s TBT Champions took home. TBT is open to anyone and free to enter. Anyone who gets votes has the chance to play. A 64-team field will play in four regions of 16 teams: Northeast, South, Midwest and West. To qualify, a team must have a minimum of 200 votes and seven players on its roster by June 1. Up to 11 players from the Revolution can qualify.

Teams can qualify for TBT 2016 only by getting votes on TheTournament.com from fans who register on the site. For fans interested in voting, they can visit https://www.thetournament.com/news/tbt-2016-what-know for more information.

•Nicholas Vandeloecht may be reached at nvandeloecht@progress-index.com or 804-722-5151.