Sturdivant showed an overflow, rocking crowd in Spencer on Friday night that even out of shoulder pads he has next-level potential. The 6-foot-4 leaper was electrifying as North Rowan (18-3 overall, 11-0 2A Central Carolina Conference) ripped arch-rival Salisbury 76-57.

Sturdivant buried two early 3-pointers to put the Cavs, who have state title dreams, in charge and buried two dunks in the third quarter that shattered Hornet comeback hopes.

Sturdivant, who doesn’t always start, was in the opening lineup for his Senior Night. He took advantage. After three minutes, he had eight points.

“Mario got eight of our first 10 and after that all our other kids seemed to feed off him,” said North coach Kelly Everhart.

A couple of Sturdivant free throws and a tip-in gave him a 12-point first quarter and sparked a North blitz for a nine-point lead by quarter’s end.

“Right from the opening bell, we were making 3-pointers,” said Everhart, whose team’s outside shooting is sometimes suspect. “Because of the way we shot the ball from outside, this was probably our best ballgame of the season.”

North played brilliantly and unselfishly from the get-go and led by 19 at 40-21 when Dre Byrd scored in the lane with 2:13 left in the first half.

But Salisbury (10-14, 6-6), which has played well of late and desperately wanted to finish second in the league, battled back to a 43-33 halftime deficit when Boo Blount banked in a runner over Byrd at the buzzer.

But in the third quarter, the Hornets were knocked out of the game as suddenly as they had gotten back into it. First, McCullough’s rebound bucket and a Chris Phillips steal and pass to Byrd for a layup gave North the first four points of the second half.

Then at the 5:07 mark in the third quarter, Sturdivant converted a spectacular two-pointer that will be talked about for a decade.

Byrd lofted a lob pass to Sturdivant on the Cavs’ patented inbounds play, one that’s worked to perfection a half-dozen times this season. The only problem was that Salisbury was prepared and prevented Sturdivant from getting to the rim.

But the long-armed Sturdivant simply turned into the Energizer Bunny. He kept going and going and going. Up, up and up. He grabbed the pass, reached over a defender and one-handed a dunk from five feet away, sending his teammates and North fans into a frenzy. And sending Salisbury into a state of shock.

“It’s an old AAU play that Coach let us put in this year,” explained Sturdivant. “Salisbury knew it was coming, but I jumped over someone’s head and dunked it anyway.”

Moments later, Marcus Lawing dished to a flying Sturdivant, who powered home a second dunk. After that, the Cavs were coming like a tidal wave and the Hornets could do nothing to stop them.

“Those dunks were daggers,” said North’s other senior, Jermaine Miller, who got his first career start. “We all get excited when someone dunks. After the dunks, we got after them. We established control.”

And kept control. By the end of the quarter, the Cavs led 67-43 and the game was over.

“We simply lost our composure in the third quarter,” said Hornet coach Drew Mathews, who watched his team throw the ball away 11 times in the furious period. “At the pace North makes you play, you must stay under control. We didn’t. We let North have a spurt that changed the whole game.”

Sturdivant, whose basketball flow was interrupted by December’s Shrine Bowl football game, had his first 20-point night of the season.

He had plenty of help.

The 6-5 McCullough, sporting his new, closely cropped postseason haircut, posted 16 points and 14 rebounds.

“Bryan was amazing,” praised Everhart. “It seemed like he got his hands on every rebound.”

Phillips scored 13, while Byrd tallied 12. The backcourt duo also led a North defense which held the Hornets to three field goals in the decisive third quarter.

Salisbury was paced by Randall Jones and Ken Drye, who had nine points each, and Thad Pryor, who pulled down 12 rebounds.

“My guys have it in them to bounce back in the conference tournament next week,” said Mathews. “But you have to give North a whole lot of credit. They played one heck of a game and they have the potential to go all the way.”

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NOTES: The CCC met this morning to determine the particulars of the league tournament. ... Salisbury, High Point Central and Ledford all finished the regular season 6-6, tied for second place behind the Cavs. Lexington is 5-6 and may make up a game with North Rowan on Monday.

SALISBURY (57) — Blanton 6, Drye 9, J.Johnson 6, T.Johnson 8, Pryor 8, Jones 9, Daugherty, B.Blount 6, M.Blount, Speigner 2, Leonard 3.

NORTH (76) — Reddick 5, Lawing 3, Sturdivant 20, Byrd 12, Davis, A.Miller 3, McCullough 16, Phillips 13, Hosch 4, Witherspoon.

Salisbury 14 19 10 14 — 57