The first time Pinecrest's Daquan Towns touched the ball in Tuesday's basketball game at Red Springs, he drove along the base line and dunked it.

Towns went on to score 11 of his team's first 12 points in the 66-50 victory that improved the Patriots to 7-0 on the season. He finished with a total of 25 points to go with 10 rebounds. Teammate Faronte Drakeford was also in double figures with 13 points.

Coach Mike Apple's squad entertains Cardinal Gibbons (3-2) at 7:30 p.m. tonight, preceded by the boys jayvee contest at 6 p.m.

"Daquan had a heck of a first half and a heck of a game, I guess you could say," Apple said of the 6-foot senior who takes the center jump at the beginning of games. "He just needs a step or two and he got real comfortable on that base line. We tell him that he can play anywhere on the court. When he starts believing it, he's going to be a handful."

Points were not as easy to come by for the visitors as in last week's 95-78 victory over the Red Devils at Pinecrest. Trailing 15-12, Marshall Smith assisted on two baskets in a row and then scored on an offensive rebound to put the Patriots ahead 18-15.

By halftime, Pinecrest led 32-23 and Towns already had 15 points.

"They had a slow guy on me so I knew I could take him," Towns said. "After the first few baskets I knew it would be kind of easy."

The hustle of Harron Carson and James Baldwin off the bench helped the Patriots balance a scoring burst by the Devils' Glenn Patterson Jr. and Larry Brown in the third period. A basket by Brown with six minutes left in the game made it 53-46.

The score was 56-48 at the four minute mark when Phillip Wallace passed to Towns standing directly under the basket for another dunk. That sparked a game-closing 10-2 run.

Towns was asked how he manages to go so high for someone 6-feet tall without even taking a step.

"It was easy, I didn't have anybody in front of me," he said.

Patterson led the Devils, now 2-5, with 19 points. In addition to the game against Cardinal Gibbons, the Patriots have a date at Overhills next Friday before getting a 10-day break leading up to the Holiday in the Pines Tournament being held at Pinecrest beginning Dec. 28.

The Patriots' first round opponent is West Montgomery in the attractive three-day event that also includes Trinity Christian, Fuquay-Varina, Broughton, Richmond Senior, Southern Lee and Overhills.

With only one game against 4A competition so far (Jack Britt), Apple knows his team is relatively untested. There were too many easy baskets allowed against Red Springs as far as he was concerned.

"You always watch your team and try to get a pulse for where they're at right now," he said. "I don't know where we're at. It seems like right now we're very reactionary on defense instead of getting after people and getting aggressive. Our team defense leaves a lot to be desired right now."

Pinecrest 14 18 16 18 -- 66

Red Springs 15 8 15 12 -- 50

Pinecrest McLaughlin 1 0-0 2, Wallace 1 2-3 4, Drakeford 6 1-1 13, Towns 11 3-3 25, Brewer 2 0-1 4, Carson 3 0-3 6, Smith 1 0-0 2, Jones 0 0-0 0, Baldwin 4 0-1 8, Threadgill 1 0-0 2. Totals 30 6-12 66. Red Springs Ferguson 1 0-4 2, Traynor 1 4-5 6, Blackmon 0 2-2 2, Patterson 9 0-0 19, Brown 6 4-11 16, Lowery 1 0-0 3, Jones 1 0-0 2. Totals 19 10-22 50. Three-point goals: (P) none (R ) 2 (Patterson, Lowery).