The North Forsyth coaches and players never mentioned anything about sending a message last night.
But that doesn't mean the Vikings didn't inadvertently send one anyway.
Playing an Asheboro team considered one of the toughest in the new Mid-Piedmont 3-A Conference, North caught fire and ran away with a 95-71 win at Cartwright Gymnasium.
"Asheboro is a very good basketball team and I have seen them play three times," Coach Sean Vestal of North said. "What I am proud of is we played hard for 32 minutes and when you do that, good things will happen."
The Vikings (9-3, 2-0 MPC) never trailed after Allen Hauser hit a baseline jumper a minute into the game, and they put on a clinic in the middle of the game, combining to score 56 points over the second and third quarters.
Hauser finished with 21 points, hitting 8 of 14 shots from the floor, Gerry Hairston scored 20, C.J. Campbell scored all 16 of his points in the first half, and Montreay Durant scored 10 and pulled down nine rebounds.
Twelve players scored on a night when the Vikings knocked down 13 of 24 3-point shots and kept the game moving at a fast pace.
Seagan Hilliard poured in 28 points for Asheboro, but the Blue Comets took their most lopsided loss of the year and fell to 9-5 overall and 1-1 in the league.
North, which didn't start a player taller than 6-4, used its speed and shooting stroke.
"We work on it," Vestal said. "One area coaches forget about a lot of times, because you are working on putting plays in, working on defense, you are worried about the other team, so a lot of times you don't put enough shots up at practice. We work on that 25, 30 minutes every day.
"We are a shooting team and when we are making shots we are pretty good. We don't have a choice. We don't have a big man, although C.J. (Campbell) played pretty well tonight."
Hauser drilled three of his five 3-pointers in the first quarter, when North built a 19-12 lead, and Durant and Trent Coles hit 3s in the final minute of the second quarter as North built a 43-26 halftime lead.
Vestal still wasn't pleased.
"I told them to come out like it was 0-0," Vestal said. "I didn't think we were playing particularly well, especially on the boards."
Hairston -- who was honored before the game for being the 10th player in school history to pass 1,000 career points -- sandwiched 3-pointers around a 3 from Durant over the first 1:15 of the third quarter for a 52-28 lead.
North led by as many as 27 in the third quarter and 28 in the fourth quarter. The 13 3-pointers were a season high.
"I believe we had 12 or 11 against Reagan and lost, so it's better to hit 13 and win," Vestal said. "But we are a shooting team. We have guys that can shoot, we have guys that can score. We had four people in double figures and when we do that we are pretty tough to beat."
mlinker@wsjournal.com.
727-7324
Asheboro 12 14 21 24 -- 71
N. Forsyth 19 24 32 20 -- 95
Asheboro (9-5, 1-1): Blackwell 7, Hilliard 28, Thomas 12, Pratt 3, Chavis 4, Thompson 3, Parsons 2, Shamburger 2, Jones 4, Trogdon 3, Barrett 3
North Forsyth (9-3, 2-0): Summers 3, Hairston 20, Durant 10, Hauser 21, Campbell 16, Kaigler 6, Mickens 2, Coles 9, Young 2, Patterson 2, Muse 2, Speas 2
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