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© St. Petersburg Times, published January 17, 2002
TAMPA -- The first half of Wednesday night's game went as well for Durant as it went poorly for Blake.
The Yellow Jackets (5-11) were plagued by botched passes, shaky ball-handling and missed shots. Meanwhile, the Cougars were snatching rebounds like lucky pennies, and even the most errantly thrown balls seemed to find their way through the hoop.
Either that, or the Cougars are just plain better than the Yellow Jackets.
The No. 3 state-ranked Cougars (17-1) defeated Blake 74-48 in a game that seemed tilted from the beginning.
"This time of the season you pretty much know what to expect," Durant coach Gary Jordan said. "Right now, we're trying to concentrate on getting the bench involved."
Even with players Chan Poe and Chris Holley dealing with bad backs and Illinois transfer R.L. Bond under the weather, the Cougars appeared full-strength behind the finesse of point guard Ean Randolph (19 points, six steals). Ben Murphy's aggression led to 14 points and five rebounds, and even Bond had a solid game (12 points, seven rebounds).
"I was up until 2 a.m. last night studying for a Latin II test, and before that I threw up twice," Bond said.
"I already told my team I would be able to play my best tonight, but I trust my team a lot. In practice, I try to push everybody hard."
The Yellow Jackets knew what to expect from the Cougars, having played them earlier this season, but kept hope as they entered the second half behind by 18 points (38-20).
"The last time we played Durant, we were down by 30 points at the half," Blake senior Vernon Lee said. "Then we lost by eight. We wanted to come out and finish what we started last time."
The Yellow Jackets were led by Marcus Gunn's 10 points. Corey Williams and Raheem Monroe each scored nine.