Beaten, bloody and wearing a new jersey, Jaquon Parker threw down the punctuation with 30 seconds left in King’s Fork’s 63-49 Eastern Region first-round victory over Denbigh.
Parker took a press-beating pass from Jay Copeland and slammed home the only dunk of the contest to give the Bulldogs their final points of the game.
Wiping his brow with a No. 35 jersey he wore throughout the fourth quarter because a bleeding elbow had ruined his usual No. 44, Parker pumped his fist after the dunk, realizing that King’s Fork was advancing to the quarterfinals.
King’s Fork will play at Booker T. Washington tonight in the quarterfinals.
“I knew this game was going to be physical,” Parker said, pulling tape off his right wrist from a second-quarter cut, and tape from his left elbow from a third-quarter gash. “Denbigh didn’t make it this far by faking it.”
Parker finished with a game-high 23 points that included a pair of 3-pointers.
King’s Fork (22-4) jumped out to an early 5-2 lead on a lay-up and 3-pointer by Parker and the Bulldogs led throughout.
Until Ra-Kesh Harris his only basket of the game with about five minutes left in the first half, Parker and Jamar Wertz had accounted for all but two of their team’s 19 points at that point.
Wertz finished with 19 points and Jay Copeland had 16.
Parker said his team’s big Southeastern District championship victory over Nansemond River last week put the Bulldogs in the right frame of mind.
“We’re ready to play,” Parker said, “because we know we can play with anybody.”
Denbigh (14-11) was led by Chris Johnson with 17 points and Brian Herrmann with 14.
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