DUNLAP —  In a battle of NCAA Division One recruits it was Franko House who came out on top and on the winning side on the scoreboard.

House poured in a career-high 31 points and grabbed 14 rebounds as the Concord Minutemen defeated the Penn Kingsmen, 63-59, in a high school boys basketball game Friday night at McCuen Gym.

House was 15-of-24 from the free-throw line in the contest.

“Taking the ball to the basket got me to the line,” the Ball State recruit said. “I didn’t know until after the game I had been there 24 times. My goal was to play more physical.”

Penn’s 6-7 senior Austin Torres, who is headed to Notre Dame, scored eight points to go with five rebounds.

“Austin and I know each other,” House said. “So there was a little extra motivation.”

Torres started out the game guarding House, but picked up two quick fouls and went to the bench for the rest of the half at 5:33 of the first period.

“House had a big game going against some very good kids,” Concord coach Steve Austin said. “Getting Torres in foul trouble helped us.

“I can’t remember having a player shoot 24 free throws in a game before. He was motivated tonight. This is the kind of player he is going to face in college.

“This is probably the second best game he’s played here. Two years ago, against Elkhart Central in the sectional he was doing everything. We keep telling him he has been too tentative. I don’t think he has any idea how good he can be.”

Penn got off to a good start by connecting four times from 3-point range in the first quarter for an 18-6 lead at quarter’s end.

“The first quarter was a little bit of fool’s gold when you hit from 3-point range like that,” Penn coach Al Rhodes said. “We also got into some foul trouble. House is tough to handle. We started Torres on him, but he got in foul trouble. House is hard to stop without fouling him.”

The Minutemen regrouped in the second period and outscored the Kingsmen 19-2 for a 25-20 lead at intermission.

“Penn took us out of out game early on,” Austin said. “We were going with too much 1-on-1 play and on defense we were not doing any of things we had worked on in practice. We were not communicating.”

Rhodes said, “Concord did a better job of executing on defense and we could not get an inside game going. Concord played well.”

House was a key for the Minutemen in second as he tossed in 12 points.

Six-two senior DuWhan Alford added nine points for the Minutemen, 6-2 junior Adam Glanders seven and 5-8 junior Ramon Johnson five.

Six-one senior Conner Sowders tossed in 24 points to lead the Kingsmen.

“Conner did a good job of mixing things up and on getting dribble penetration,” Rhodes said.

Concord was up 41-39 at the end of the third period. The Minutemen expanded the lead to 47-41 with 5:50 left to play.

“This is a good win for us to see where we are at,” Austin said.

Concord 63, Penn 59

PENN — Nathan Miller 2-2 0-0 5, Jordan Geist 1-8 2-2 4, Cory Kreiger 0-1 0-0 0, Billy Doslak 2-2 0-0 5, Conner Sowders 8-12 4-6 24, Ryan Lutz 2-4 0-0 6, Christian Wittendorf 1-1 0-1 2, Andrew Kimm 0-0 0-0 0, Austin Torres 3-5 2-4 8, Mikey Szrom 1-6 3-3 5, Isaiah Cook 0-0 0-0 0. Team 20-41 11-16 59

CONCORD — Ramon Johnson 2-5 1-3 5, Dylan Wynne 0-0 0-0 0, Adam Glanders 2-6 3-4 7, DuWhan Alford 3-10 3-6 9, Franko House 8-17 15-24 31, Filip Serwatka 2-4 0-0 5, Dakota Simon 1-2 0-0 2, Ghaneah Wayker 2-5 0-0 4. Team: 20-49 22-27 63

Penn    18    2    19    20    —    59

Concord    6    19    16    22    —    63

3-point goals: Penn 8-17 (Sowders 4-7, Lutz 2-4, Doslak 1-1, Miller 1-1, Kreiger 0-1, Geist 0-3). Concord 1-8 (Serwatka 1-1, House 0-2, Johnson 0-2, Alford 0-3).

Fouls: Penn 23, Concord 15.

Rebounds: Penn 28 (Szrom 9, Wittendorf 6, Torres 5). Concord 33 (House 14, Alford 6, Glanders 4, Serwatka 4).

Assists: Concord 6 (Johnson 4).

Steals: Concord 9 (Alford 4, Johnson 2).

Turnovers: Penn 11, Concord 10.

Officials: Mark McCammon, Justin Shippy, Roy Lesher.

Records (next games): Concord (2-0) hosts Elkhart Memorial next Friday. Penn (1-1) at Fort Wayne South tonight.

JV score: Penn won 38-25.