NEW YORK - Epiphanny Prince was instructed to maintain her intensity on the court, despite the less-than-stellar opponent and apparent lack of a challenge.

The 5-foot-9 high school senior couldn’t have been more focused Wednesday.

Prince scored 113 points for Murry Bergtraum High School in a 137-32 win over Brandeis High School, breaking a girls’ national prep record previously held by Hall of Famer Cheryl Miller.

“I was telling some college coaches before the game that in the (Public School Athletic League) the competition isn’t that great, and that I thought I might get bored,” Prince said. “They told me to keep playing hard and doing my best.”

As the points began to accumulate at a Kobe Bryant-like pace, Prince recognized the rare opportunity at hand.

“After I scored 29 points in the first quarter, I didn’t think much of it,” Prince told The Associated Press by phone Wednesday night. “After I had 58 points at the half, and especially after having in the 80s after the third quarter, I just decided to go for it.

“It was efficient,” she said. “It wasn’t like I missed a whole bunch of shots. That’s what made it even better.”

Prince, one of the nation’s top high school players, is headed to Rutgers next season. Her previous high this season was 51 points for the Lady Blazers, ranked No. 2 in the nation by USA Today.

“At the half, we thought she had a chance to break the record, so we just let her go,” coach Ed Grezinsky said.

Brandeis coach Vera Springer thought Grezinsky made a poor decision by leaving Prince in the game, the New York Post reported Thursday.

“It’s nothing against Epiphanny,” Springer told the newspaper. “I have great admiration for her. This was an adult decision. Why would you do this against a team like ours?”

Springer said her team, which has won only four league games this season, stopped playing defense in the second half.

“She didn’t earn this,” Springer told the Post. “It was like picking on a handicapped person.”

Miller scored 105 points for Riverside Poly in California against Riverside Norte Vista in 1982. She went on to become an All-American at USC.

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Two-time WNBA MVP Lisa Leslie scored 101 points in a half for Morningside High School in Inglewood, Calif., against South Torrance in 1990. South Torrance refused to play the second half.

“It’s an amazing thing when an individual does that,” NBA star LeBron James said, when told of Prince’s performance. “I don’t know who she is, but maybe we’ll see her in the WNBA. For that matter, the NBA.”

The boys’ high school record is 135 points, set by Danny Heater of Burnsville High School in West Virginia in 1960, according to the National High School Sports Record Book on the National Federation of State High School Associations’ Web site.

Bryant scored 81 points in the Los Angeles Lakers’ win over the Toronto Raptors on Jan. 22, the second-highest total in NBA history. The league record is 100 points by Wilt Chamberlain on March 2, 1962.