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MARIETTA - Walton unloaded on Central Gwinnett early and often as the Raiders went on to take an 88-67 win in the SEBA Atlanta High School Hoop Festival on Saturday at the Cobb County Civic Center.

Kyle Putkonen and Glen Rice Jr. led the Walton onslaught, with Putkonen scoring 22 points and Rice adding 19 points for the Raiders.

Walton (5-3) outscored Central Gwinnett, 26-16, in the second quarter to pull away, with Putkonen and Rice combining for 21 of the Raiders' 26 points.

Putkonen scored 13 points and had three 3-pointers in the second quarter, while Rice had eight second-quarter points.

"We played pretty well on offense - we scored 88 points," Walton coach Joe Goydish said. "We shot it well in transition. Putkonen was hot and that opened up some opportunities for Glen Rice."

Central Gwinnett coach Dave Allen was impressed with Walton's performance on offense.

"Walton is a very good basketball team," Allen said. "We don't have any excuses. Walton was explosive on offense and they shot the ball well."

Walton also got solid contributions from G'Mitri Rice with 13 points and Marcus Fondon with 10 points.

DeVonta White and Brian Williams scored 18 points each and Prinz Barimah added 15 points for Central Gwinnett (5-3), which defeated Kell, 64-51, on Friday.

Leading, 9-8, with 4:35 remaining in the first quarter, Walton went on a 10-3 run to take a 19-11 lead with 2:10 left and the Raiders fought off a Central Gwinnett comeback to hold a 21-17 advantage at the end of the quarter.

Williams hit a 3-pointer for Central Gwinnett at the beginning of the second quarter to cut the Walton lead to one, but Glen Rice responded in a big way with an ally-oop dunk off of a pass from Fondon and then threw down another dunk off of a Central Gwinnett turnover to increase the Raiders' advantage to 25-20 with 7:08 remaining in the first half.

Walton led 30-26 with 4:28 left in the first half, when Putkonen nailed a 3-pointer and hit a couple of free throws shortly thereafter to increase the Raiders' lead to 35-26 with 3:45 left.

A layup by Barimah cut Walton's lead to seven, but Putkonen hit another 3 to put the Raiders up, 38-28, with 3:11 left in the half.

Dzman Colquitt helped Central Gwinnett cut the Walton lead back to single digits with a putback, but Rice came back with a turn-around jumper and the Raiders were leading 42-31 with 2:04 left.

White scored on a layup to bring Central Gwinnett back within nine, but a layup by Michael Elliott and a 3-pointer by Putkonen gave Walton a 47-33 lead that it would hold at halftime.

Walton continued to build on its lead in the third quarter and led, 66-46, with 54.7 seconds left before Central Gwinnett scored the last five points to cut the Raiders' lead to 66-51 at the end of the quarter.

Central Gwinnett continued to chip away at Walton's lead early in the fourth quarter and was trailing, 67-57, with 6:50 remaining in the game.

Walton, however, bounced back with an 8-0 run on layups by Fondon and Scott Norman, a pair of free throws by Glen Rice and a transition layup by Putkonen to take a 75-57 lead with 4:46 left in the game and the Raiders were never threatened after that.

goshust@mdjonline.com

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