With an 80-54 win at South Whidbey Tuesday, Jan. 8, the King’s boys basketball team established itself as the favorite to win the North Sound Conference title.

The resounding win over the defending Cascade Conference champions was King’s fourth straight without a loss in NSC play. The Knights (4-0, 10-4) have now won five straight and nine of their past 10 games.

King’s also snapped South Whidbey’s seven-game winning streak with the victory.

The Falcons (2-1, 8-4) will try to begin another streak at Cedar Park Christian (1-2, 5-8) at 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 11.

South Whidbey topped the Eagles 63-53 at home in the conference opener Dec. 11.

King’s 80, South Whidbey 53

Falcon coach Mike Washington described the Knights as “really good” and “huge.”

King’s features a roster of six players 6-4 or taller, and the group scored 48 of the Knights’ 80 points.

One of the big boys, 6-6 Tyler Linhardt, scored 8 points in the first quarter while the Knights’ smallest player, 5-7 Hunter Reeves, added 7 and King’s went up 19-13 despite a trio of three-pointers by South Whidbey’s Sterling Patton.

The Falcons’ Carson Wrightson tried to keep South Whidbey in the game in the second period with 12 points, including two hoops from beyond the arc, but Jordan Hansen drained four three-pointers and King’s upped its lead to 12, 42-30, at halftime.

The third quarter decided the game as the Knights outscored the Falcons 24-6. Hansen added two more three-pointers and five players scored 4 or more points in the period for King’s.

South Whidbey outscored the Knights 18-14 in the fourth period, but it wasn’t nearly enough to get the Falcons back into the game.

Linhardt scored a game-high 20 points, as four Knights scored in double figures. Hansen finished with 18, all off three-pointers.

South Whidbey’s leading scorer for the season, Kody Newman, was limited to 9 points, all in the second half. Wrightson finished with 16, Patton 12, Levi Buck 8, Jacob Ng 7 and Cody Eager 2.

Buck also had six rebounds, Wrightson five and Nick Young five. Newman added three assists.

“(King’s) was way more aggressive than we were,” Washington said, “But I was happy with the fight in our guys; they did not quit.

“Carson and Levi played well, (and I) was happy with freshman Jacob Ng’s play.”