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The undersized two-guard scored 23 points, including 20 in the first half with the outcome still in doubt, as the Blue Devils cruised past Whitman, 67-48.

‘‘Okay, I’d have to say that he is,” Crowell said. ‘‘People can play the box and one on him, but he’s just so quick, and he finishes very well also. He’s like an Allen Iverson type-guy; he’s very cocky, he’s very confident in what he can do, and I’m glad he’s just a junior.”

After the Vikings (7-8 overall, 4-5 in the Montgomery 4A East Division) hit the first two shots of the game, Garner and friends silenced the raucous crowd during consecutive 14-0 and 14-4 runs that put Springbrook up by 20. Garner did it all: knocking down three-pointers, slicing through double-teams for buckets in traffic, outrunning defenders for fast-break layups and even nabbing putbacks on offensive rebounds.

Garner has scored out of his mind lately, helping Springbrook to the best overall record in the county. In a three-game stretch versus Walter Johnson, Sherwood and Blake earlier this month, he scored 100 total points. Last week against Blair, he ‘‘only” had 21, to go along with nine steals, in a 31-point blowout.

But while his electrifying scoring kept the Whitman defense on their heels, it was the Blue Devils’ defensive scheme that was mostly responsible for their huge early lead. When the two clashed earlier in the season, the Vikings owned a 10-point halftime lead before Springbrook rallied for a three-point victory.

This time, Whitman never found its comfort zone, which is driving and kicking to open shooters — there were simply no shooters open. In particular, the Blue Devils completely took away leading scorer Mikey Fitzpatrick, who didn’t score a single point with athletic defenders on him all night.

‘‘Coach made up this really good game plan; he studied the tapes, so we knew exactly what they were going to do,” Garner said. ‘‘They run a lot of double screens for Mikey Fitzpatrick, and [Springbrook point guard] Othello Banaci did a great job defending him. I believe he went scoreless, and we also shut down [Sam] Burum. Those were two of their main scorers, so by shutting them down, we pretty much had it.”

Banaci in particular was responsible for the lock-down. Despite giving up eight inches to Fitzpatrick, the senior floor general has elite quickness and a compact 5-foot-8 body, and used it to push the Viking sharpshooter even deeper than his normal perimeter comfort zone. He also added 10 points and four rebounds to a performance that may not have been flashy like his backcourt mate’s, but was just as important.

Whitman, down 21 after three quarters, was able to cut sizably into the lead with a 12-0 run that briefly cut the lead to 12 with five minutes to play. An impressive point guard in his own right, Viking senior Antoine White abandoned his normal table-setting mindset and went into attack mode, carrying the offense with 19 points.

Combining with junior forward Aaron Mouton, who came off the bench to provide much-needed energy to go along with seven points, the tandem made things interesting midway through the period, but a corner three-pointer from Blue Devil swingman Micah Perry stemmed the rally.

‘‘They’re so much more athletic and fast than us, that if we don’t play our hardest, we’re going to get embarrassed,” Whitman coach Chris Lun said. ‘‘When we cut it to 12, kids were having fun just playing. ... For whatever reason, we only started showing enthusiasm when we got down 20.”