Cole Thurston is not usually the leading scorer for Dobson. He was not again on Thursday night, but the damage he did early was enough to keep visiting Chandler at bay all night.

Thurston sank five 3-point shots in the first half -- three in the first period -- to spur a 12-2 run to open the game that led Dobson to a 100-78 triumph over Chandler.

Thurston, a 5-foot-10 senior guard got looks from every angle of the perimeter in launching Dobson (7-2) to a big early lead. He finished with 19 points and scored 17 of those in the first half. Thurston entered the game averaging a little better than 6 points a game.

"Cole really started hot didn't he," Dobson coach Rick McConnell said. "It was nice to get a big lead quickly against them. We did a good job of maintaining it."

While Thurston's hot hand was keying the offense, 6-4 junior Kyle Tomlinson was active on the defensive end trying to keep Chandler's inside presence, Kisima Jagne, from establishing himself. Tomlinson was instrumental in helping deny Jagne the ball in the opening quarter.

Jagne scored four points, but also got into foul trouble. A technical foul saddled Jagne with his third foul with 2:39 left in the first quarter and sent the powerful 6-5 transfer from Cesar Chavez to the bench. Dobson led 28-11 after the first period and 52-31 at halftime.

"Kyle is good defender," McConnell said. "He was just as hot on defense as Cole was shooting. He gets his hands on the ball a lot."

Tomlinson helped out offensively with 11 points.

After Thurston's hot start, Dobson's leading scorer on the season, Malcolm McKinney, began picking up the slack. McKinney scored 17 first-half points. He finished with 28. Point guard Mike Brusnahan added 18 points, 15 in the second half as Dobson held off several small runs by Chandler (4-5) that a couple times sliced 25-point leads to 15.

Chandler got a game-high 32 points from guard Andre Norris. Jagne, despite playing with four fouls in the second half, had an easier time after intermission. He scored 16 points in the second half to finish with 20.