King blew away Public League Red-Central opponent Harper 102-57 and did it with such studied cool that any future opponent looking on had to feel a sense of hopelessness.
King (18-0, 6-0) outscored Harper 27-1 in the first 5 1/2 minutes. Johnny Selvie (21 points), playing with detached ease, scored 13 points in that stretch on a variety of fast breaks and inside moves.
Jamie Brandon (26 points) sunk a towering three-pointer almost as an afterthought for the 27th point, then popped in another at the end of the first quarter to put King up 36-5.
And Rashard Griffith, the 6-foot-11-inch freshman, had the Harper players altering every inside shot and thinking twice about every drive.
It was all in another day`s work for King-or so it seemed. Underneath the cool had to be a burning unease left over from Wednesday`s close call, a 52-50 decision over Tilden.
Harper (11-5, 2-3) certainly wasn`t an opponent to take lightly. King had to deal with supple forwards Dennie Topps (19 points) and Terrence Willis (15 points), and quick guards led by 5-4 Maurice Bridges.
Brandon, Ahmad Shareef (21 points) and Keith Johnson took care of the guards; Griffith and Selvie took care of the rest.
Griffith scored 15 points, but more destructive to Harper were his 13 blocked shots and 12 rebounds.
”We didn`t take it to the big kid,” Harper coach Bobby Ricks said. ”We wanted to push the ball. They`re so much bigger than us, we wanted to run and maybe get a few easy baskets.”
Instead, King had it easy.
