The “next man up” mentality is usually used when talking about players going down.

But in their first game without head coach Greg Boler, who was placed on administrative leave this week, the Roseville Panthers needed to dip into their coaching reserves.

Enter Panthers’ JV head coach Janele Ellis and freshman head coach Eric Mack Jr., who served as co-head coaches for the varsity team, on Wednesday when the Panthers knocked off Fraser, 47-38, in the team’s first game without their leader of four years.

“Losing a part of the family is definitely hard,” Mack Jr. said. “But me and Coach Janele, we overcame many (adversities), this is not going to stop us. We got to pull together for the fellas and for the school, for the community. So that’s what we did, and that’s what we’ll continue to do, you know, not just for Coach Greg, but for the Roseville program itself.”

The reason for Boler’s absence is currently undisclosed.

Neither Roseville nor Fraser started strong offensively in Wednesday’s Macomb Area Conference crossover game, which started at 4 p.m. as opposed to the normalized 7 p.m. But the Panthers’ scoring quickly picked up in the start of the second quarter when senior Hanklin Elston matched his team’s first quarter production — eight points — on his own.

He was helped by made 3-pointers by Kyle Reeves and Timothy Dawson before the break.

Elston, like the rest of the Panthers, felt that the smooth transition to working with Ellis and Mack Jr., enabled him to continue to play his best.

“We put our trust in Coach Janele,” Elston said. “She’s been here with us since Coach (Boler’s) been here with us. So we trust her. She knows what she’s doing. Yeah, practice (has) been good. It hurts that he’s out right now, but we’re doing good.”Elston scored just four points coming off the bench in the first. He added 10 points in the second half to finish with a game-high 22. It’s his first year playing varsity basketball at Roseville — he’s one of the standouts on the Panthers’ football team, earning a MAC all-league selection this season — and has been hard at work since their season-ending loss to Grosse Pointe South in November.

“I’ve been feeling good,” Elston said. “I didn’t play last year, so I’m just trying to be a better leader and senior to the team, and just get more wins from the team. … After we took the loss to Grosse Pointe South in football, I’ve just been in the gym working, just getting ready for the team trying win more games.”

While Roseville’s offense started to pick up — they scored a game-high 18 points in the second quarter — their defense continued to make things difficult for Fraser. The Ramblers had just 14 points at halftime and didn’t score more than 10 in a quarter until the fourth, when a late run helped them close the gap from 18 to 11.

“I thought Roseville did a very good job of speeding us up, and that led to some off-balance shots,” said Fraser head coach Steve Norgrove. “And when you’re playing a team as talented as they are, if you can’t keep pace early, it causes problems deeper into the half.

“I believe they had 17 more shots than we did tonight, and you’re not going to win games like that. We had a better shooting percentage, but they did a better job getting to the ball and getting themselves extra shots and converting on those.”

The Ramblers showed their first true signs of life when they scored the final seven points of the third quarter, which included Sam Zanon banking in a 3-pointer from just inside half court, to bring them within 15 points.

That run got to 9-0 before a turnover led to a dunk for Reeves in transition, itself the start of an 8-2 run for Roseville.

“We know we’re going to be tough on defense,” Mack Jr. said. “We’re going to give it all on defense. One of the things about me and Coach Janele, we preach ball pressure. How we play is how we played in college, so that’s exactly what we carry out on the court.”

Reeves finished with nine points. Ja’Darius Payne had six, Xion Curry and Tim Dawson each made one 3-pointer and Todario Payne had two points.

The win was especially important for the Panthers (4-2) in order to start Ellis and Mack Jr.’s tenure — however long it might last — on a strong note.

“It was so important for us,” Mack Jr. said. “I texted Coach Janele this morning, and I was like, listen, I believe in you. She believed me. She got me into the program. So I have nothing but trust in her and in the program.”

Fraser drops to 3-4 as they continue to navigate the new season.

They’ve yet to go on a streak of any kind — each loss has been followed by a win and vice-versa — but part of it has been a schedule that Norgrove designed specifically to test his players by giving them several different looks and experiences.

“We have good kids that were waiting in the wings, and now it’s their turn, and we’re just trying to get them as many different types of opponents as we can find going into league play,” Norgrove said. “And I think we’ve done that … so we’ve given them great opportunities. And some of our guys are really rising to the occasion and others are feeling the stress of what athletics is all about.

“But we love our team. We’re going to stay at it and keep getting after it. And we just want to prove every time we play.”

Zanon led the Ramblers with 16 points. Logan Sabo had seven, Brady Slone scored five and Carson Bennie, Chris Childs and Darius Smith each scored two points.