The King’s Fork varsity boys’ basketball team failed to put Menchville away early, but the Bulldogs eventually prevailed 55-44 in the first round of the second annual Bulldog Christmas Tournament at King’s Fork High School on Thursday evening.

King’s Fork head coach Josh Worrell, who designed the event to function similarly to the end-of-the-season regional tourney, was happy for the win but discontented with his team’s performance.

“We didn’t play consistent basketball,” he said.

The Bulldogs led 17-7 after the first quarter and 25-16 at the half, but the Monarchs went on a 12-3 run in the last 4:10 of the third quarter to tie the game 35-35 going into the fourth.

“They got too many offensive rebounds in the third quarter,” Worrell said. “That caused problems.”

He explained that his players were jumping to get rebounds rather than simply boxing out. Their effective play in the final period, however, got the job done.

“The kids just made better plays,” Worrell said. “We made better plays than they did to win the game.”

KF senior guard Jacorey Smith led the Bulldogs with 14 points to go with seven rebounds, five assists and six steals.

“Jacorey played really well,” Worrell said. “Overall game — probably the best game he’s played.”

Smith’s perspective on the Bulldogs’ play mostly mirrored Worrell’s.

“We played sloppy,” Smith said. “We weren’t disciplined tonight. I’m happy we got the win, but in order to win, we just had to keep rebounding and doing the small intangibles. I felt we did that. That’s the reason why we won, kept fighting, because they weren’t going to quit.”

Worrell knew that his team could not afford to sleepwalk against this Peninsula District opponent.

“They’re right around the middle of the pack over there, but they can knock off anybody, any night,” he said.

KF had a balanced night offensively, with more seniors helping out: Roderick Parrett scored 11, Shawn Williams put up 10 while Akanni White and Donte Ralph scored eight apiece.

After starting off 1-3, the Bulldogs have now won five straight games and the senior-laden squad is starting to show the promise it had at the beginning of the season.

“Being a better team, being unselfish with the basketball — that’s the two keys,” Worrell said. “We were very selfish at the beginning of the year, and it showed. Now, we’re being unselfish. We might not be scoring as many points, but we’re able to defend.”

King’s Fork (6-3, 5-2) advanced to face Kellam on Friday night. Kellam had defeated Granby earlier in the tournament on Thursday.