Dunks were aplenty for Mahtomedi's Parker Fox, with each one of them energizing his home crowd in the battle for first place vs. North St. Paul.

Fox and his 15 points led the way for the Zephyrs in a big win Friday night, defeating the Polars 70-49 to remain undefeated in the Metro East.

"It's fun. We had a good atmosphere in there, good crowd," Fox said. "When you're out there throwing down, people are jumping around and that's definitely what you want."

The Zephyrs' (16-1, 9-0 Metro East) Fox led all scorers and had four dunks. With the win over the Polars (12-6, 7-2 Metro East), Mahtomedi stays in first place in its conference.

The game was only close in the beginning. North St. Paul led 12-9 with over 10 minutes left in the first half, but Mahtomedi went on a 21-8 run to end the half.

"When we're playing good defense, we got enough guys that can score," Mahtomedi coach Keith Newman said. "We're going to eventually get some baskets."

Shayne Frost had 11 points off the bench. His two three-pointers came during the 21-8 run.

"He contributed a lot of positive momentum off the bench," Newman said. "He also played great defense tonight so that was nice to see."

Mahtomedi has won eight consecutive games while the Polars have lost three of their past four.

The Zephyrs had four players in double figures, as Fox had 15, Andy Voyen had 13, Lincoln Rock had 12 and Frost had 11.

"We know we can compete with anybody in the state," Fox said. "We just love the way we played basketball tonight."

Goodnews Kpegeol of North St. Paul led his team with 13 points. Josh Steckler was the other double-digit scorer for the Polars, scoring 12 points.

Newman said limiting Kpegeol was the Zephyrs' goal in practice this week.

"We had good preparation ... especially getting ready defensively for Goodnews," Newman said. "We really executed that game plan well as far as making it hard for him."

Michael Hendrickson is a University of Minnesota student on assignment for the Star Tribune.