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GREENSBORO -- Stan Kowalewski doesn't wear his bright purple sport coat for just any occasion, as you might guess.

The Northern Guilford basketball coach had the jacket -- think Barney the Dinosaur in pelt form -- custom-made to match the Nighthawks' colors for their first home game last season, but it's hung in his closet ever since.

"It takes some guts to bring it out," he said.

Knowing he'd need all the help he could get against a Dudley team that hadn't lost a conference game in two years, Kowalewski resurrected the plum fashion statement Wednesday and watched his team respond with a resounding 74-54 win that pulled the Nighthawks (18-3, 10-1) even with Dudley (19-2, 10-1) atop the Triad 3-A standings.

"Maybe I've got to bring it out more often," Kowalewski said.

Dudley rallied from a 13-point deficit to beat Northern 61-60 when these two teams met Jan. 9, but there was no such luck this time after the Nighthawks exploded for a 15-0 run to start the game. Northern guard Michael Neal, who finished with a game-high 24 points, spearheaded the run by hitting a pair of layups and forcing a steal that led to a 3-pointer by Dylan Berry, who rained in 17 points from outside.

"We were just flat," Dudley coach David Price said. "They played well, and we weren't where we were supposed to be."

North Carolina coach Roy Williams watched from behind the scorer's table -- he happily complied when a young girl asked him to sign her forearm -- and he and everyone else must have sensed a counterpunch was coming. It landed with a crash in the final three minutes of the first quarter as Dudley drilled four straight 3-pointers -- two by Brennan Wyatt, one by P.J. Hairston and another out of a timeout by Wyatt that elicited a primal scream from Hairston -- to wipe out all but three points of the deficit.

"They're too good a team to be held scoreless," Kowalewski said. "I wasn't surprised they came back, even though I hoped they wouldn't."

But Northern stretched its lead back to 14 by halftime, then pulled away by as many as 28 in the second half by squeezing Dudley on defense and holding the Panthers' leading scorer, Hairston, without a point in the second half. Hairston rarely found his way inside the perimeter and finished with nine points on 3-of-13 shooting.

Wyatt led the Panthers with 17 points, and Brandon Pennix added 11.

There were few lucky bounces for the Panthers, who had been winning by more than 30 points a game -- the margin was 77 in one contest -- and only twice had let an opponent finish closer than 13. This was Dudley's first loss to Northern in the latter's two years of existence and the Panthers' first loss in the country this season.

Their only previous defeat came at the Gatorade International Championship in Puerto Rico.

"Sometimes you need a wake-up call," Price said. "I hope we can't play any worse."

Contact Tom Keller at 373-7034 or tom.keller@news-record.com

Dudley (19-2, 10-1) -- Brennan Wyatt 17, Brandon Pennix 11, P.J. Hairston 9, Chris Whitsett 7, Reggie Dillard 4, Seth Trotter 4, Devin Waddell 3.

Northern Guilford (18-3, 10-1) -- Michael Neal 24, Dylan Berry 17, Jonathan Frye 12, Jacob Lawson 6, John McBeth 6, Asad Lamot 5, Daniel Downing 2, Carlos Rankins 2.