SHORELINE — King’s hot field goal shooting and physical play inside helped it devour Archbishop Murphy, 78-54, Jan. 31.
Forward Carson Bowlin scored 15 points and grabbed nine rebounds, while post Charlie Enquist scored 13 points and blocked four shots to lead King’s.
The Knights, the No. 1-ranked Class 2A team in the state in the latest Associated Press poll, shot 64 percent from the field, making 32-of-50 field goals. Bowlin made 7-of-8 shots while Enquist made 6-of-7 shots.
The Knights raced out to a 9-0 lead, led 41-22 at the half, and never trailed. Archbishop Murphy’s Mark Leone, who scored a game-high 16 points, hit three 3-pointers in the third quarter to help the Wildcats creep within 11, but that’s as close as the team would come.
“This is a big game for us,” Bowlin said. “They play physical. That’s the play we’ll see when we get to districts.”
King’s, which outrebounded the Wildcats 27-20, handled the Wildcats’ physical play better than the first time the teams played, King’s head coach Marv Morris said.
Offensively, the Knights nearly scored at-will.
“We were way too soft,” Archbishop Murphy head coach Jerry Zander said. “We needed to play much more physical.”
Still the game “was a good test for us to see how far we’ve come,” Zander said.
The Wildcats, who earned their first two conference wins over Sultan and Lakewood before losing to King’s, have played better since a team meeting after a loss to Granite Falls Jan. 20.
“Everyone got on the same page,” Zander said.
Morris said he’s seen improvement in four aspects of the Knights’ game: execution, footwork, timing and anticipation.
“This team is starting to make progress in areas that are really important,” he said.
Several Wildcat players are not with the team right now. Starting senior forward Chris Hoerauf is out for the season with a slipped disk in his back, the result of a football injury. Another starting senior forward Alex Ungs, is academically ineligible as is freshman forward J.D. Melton. Both are out for the rest of the regular season. However, the Wildcats’ tallest player, 6-foot-5 sophomore Ryan Bourke, was cleared to practice after coming back from an injury to his right ankle.
King’s came up with 10 steals while committing only 12 turnovers. Alex Burns led Archbishop Murphy with six assists.
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