SPENCER— Let’s see: via the transitive property, North Rowan’s boys basketball team should win the Class 3Astate title by 39 points this spring.

Of course, theCavs play 2A basketball, and there are plenty of teams across the state — and one in the western part of Rowan County, especially — that might have something to say about just how good North is.

But Tuesday night, A.L. Brown stunned defending 3Astate champ Central Cabarrus by 13 points. One night later, the Wonders took an 81-55 beating at North that really wasn’t as close as the 26-point margin suggested.

The scary thing is that the Cavaliers are still getting warmed up at 3-0.

“We’re just beginning to get our basketball legs about us,”said head coach Kelly Everhart, who had nine players on the football field less than two weeks ago. “We’re not there yet by a long shot, but I’m pleased with where we are.”

The Cavs’ vaunted full-court press isn’t up and running yet and some players had been struggling with their shots heading into the A.L. Brown contest. Last week in the season opener, North escaped with a 65-61 victory at Kannapolis.

It was a game still fresh in the Cavalier minds.

“The first game at Kannapolis was a little bit closer than it was supposed to be and I think that got them a little cocky,”North point guard Dre Byrd said. “We wanted to get out on them early.”

Byrd, who enjoyed his best game since turning in his pads, helped do it. He had 11 points in a first quarter that ended with North leading 26-13. It was 47-27 at halftime and the lead stretched to 37 points —66-29 — with 2:49 to go in the third quarter.

“The intensity wasn’t there at the beginning. We were flat tonight for some reason,”Wonders head coach Shelwyn Klutz said. “North was ready to play and just took it to us.”

A.L. Brown had at least a little intensity coming off the Central upset. Junior star Aundrae Allison, who scored a career-high 30 last week against North, picked up a technical in a physical first quarter after he was whistled for a foul.

When the first quarter ended, both teams were shooting the bonus. North connected on 8-of-11 free throws in the opening quarter and only missed three field goals as well. The hot shooting keyed the blowout: through three quarters, North’s field-goal percentage was a sizzling 58 percent. From the line, the Cavs shot 17-for-26 (65 percent).

“We were not shooting well and they were awesome,”Klutz said. “Everything they put up, it seemed like it went in. We just couldn’t find the basket tonight.”

North felt the same way last week against A.L. Brown. The Wonders connected on eight 3-pointers, but that shooting was nowhere to be found Wednesday. Brown finished at 31 percent for the game and hit just 4-of-14 attempts from long range.

“The key to this game tonight was keeping a hand in their faces on the 3-point shot,”Everhart said. “The other night at Kannapolis they bombed 3s at us left and right. We did a much better job on the perimeter tonight.”

North center Bryan McCullough followed Byrd’s big first quarter with 10 points in the second. He finished with 23 points and nine rebounds. Marcus Reddick scored 10 points in a little more than two quarters of action, hitting 4-of-5 field-goal attempts, and Omar Witherspoon came off the bench with 14 points and was 6-for-6 from the free-throw line.

Allison led the Wonders with 18 points, many of them on spectacular sweeping moves to the hoop. But the biggest score of the night belonged to Marcus Lawing, who only finished with seven points. His final attempt started at the 3-point arc, threaded through the A.L. Brown defense and ended with a huge one-handed slam that brought the crowd back to its feet even though the lead was 57-29 at that point.

n

NOTES: A.L. Brown played without the services of Jason Brown, who hurt his knee againstCentral. The guard was the Wonders’ No. 2 scorer. … Next up for 2-2 A.L. Brown is Piedmont on Friday. The Cavs are off until East Rowan visits Wednesday.

A.L. BROWN (55) — A.Allison 18, Thomas 9, T.Allison 5, Robinson 5, Caldwell 5, Blackmon 3, Collins 3, Blakeney 3, Abercrombie 2, Barrier 2, Crawford, Furr, Burch, Miller.

NORTHROWAN (81) — McCullough 23, Byrd 16, Witherspoon 14, Reddick 10, Lawing 7, Phillips 5, Hosch 4, Peoples 2, House, Bates.

A.L. Brown 13 14 11 17 — 55

North Rowan 26 21 22 12 — 81