Staff report

THOMASVILLE — Sometimes Salisbury junior Juke Harris settles the outcome in the first quarter, and Tuesday was one of those nights.

Harris had a pretty incredible first quarter in an 81-39 romp, overmatching East Davidson with five 3-pointers, two dunks and 21 points in the first eight minutes, as the Hornets seized a 29-12 lead.

The highly recruited wing got in a rhythm in the Central Carolina Conference road game and was just letting it fly. There were lots of long-range swishes.

Harris did his best to get all his teammates involved in the middle two quarters, didn’t force anything and made some nice passes. He finished with 31 points.

The guy who had a career outing for the Hornets was Deuce Walker, who scored 18. All 18 came on layups. He had a great third quarter. Walker gets in the air quickly and he’s very strong for a guard. He overpowered East Davidson frequently on the offensive glass, sometimes sticking back his own miss.

The Hornets played without Dashawn Brown. Hank Webb only made one of  many open shots. Mike Geter scored only two and sat for a good portion of the game, but he was able to return to the floor after sustaining what appeared to be an ankle injury in the second quarter.

So it wasn’t a perfect outing. But none of that mattered much. Juke and Deuce took care of this one, and Jonathan Ross and Jalen Chunn chipped in with some solid 3-point shooting.

Salisbury (15-5, 9-1) has won eight straight.

Elsewhere in the CCC, Thomasville, which also has one league loss, kept pace with the Hornets by pounding South Davidson 85-57. West Davidson knocked off Lexington 50-49 in a middle-of-the-pack scrap.

Thomasville will play at North Rowan tonight.

Salisbury         29   20   22  10  — 81

E. Davidson    12      7     13  7    — 39

Salisbury — Harris 31, Walker 18, Ross 10, Chunn 8, Davis 5, Sheppard 3, Webb 3, Geter 2, Colbert 1.