PLANT CITY - Durant junior forward Andre Nation brought a capacity crowd to its feet.
Nation dazzled with alley oops and two-handed dunks en route to a career-high 31 points, along with 12 rebounds, three blocks and three steals, leading the Cougars past Plant City 63-49 in a Class 5A-District 8 boys basketball game Wednesday.
The Cougars retained the annual Ron Frost City Championship trophy in the process.
Durant (7-1, 6-0) sits atop the district standings heading into the holiday break, a feat that gave first-year Durant coach Trent Tice mixed emotions.
"It feels really good to be in first place," he said, "but we'll have a target on our chest every night."
Plant City (5-2, 3-2) had no answer for Nation, who scored 18 points in the first half.
"He's been dominant for us," Tice said.
"We knew we had to come out here and play a good game, it being a rivalry game," Nation said. "It's always been so close (against Plant City), so it's big to win by double digits."
Chris Smith led the visiting Raiders with 17 points and nine rebounds.
Durant started the game on an 11-0 run and led 39-18 at the half, never allowing Plant City to come within single digits the remainder of the game.
"We were passing the ball around and we had six or seven guys making shots," Tice said.
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