Friday night, in a raucous atmosphere at The Mill, the Knights took on the Little Miami Panthers and crafted a hard-fought 58 to 39 win against a tough conference opponent. 

STATS | STANDINGS | PHOTOS (Courtesy of Jenny Haralamous)

It was KBA night, and with the Knights playing their first game of 2008 against their back-door neighbors, it was strictly SRO.  And as usual, the Panthers brought their A game to The Mill.   Little Miami has been hurt by injuries, but they have a core of veteran players who fought to keep this one closer than expected.  In fact the Knights were trailing by 1 toward the end of the first quarter, but a last second 2 by Aaron Gayhart on a feed from Matt Stevens put the Knights up 14 to 13 at the end of the quarter.

 Early on it was the Matt Beerse show.  The Panthers’ shooting guard scored 12 of his team’s first 16 points, hitting a deep 3 with 5 minutes left in the second quarter to tie the game at 16.   But it was the last points he would score before the game was well out of reach.  With Calvin Scruby and Mark Byrd blanketing the Panthers’ star the rest of the way, Beerse wound up with 15 points on 5 of 13 shooting.

The Knights, slowly taking control of the game, took an 8 point lead into the locker room at half time, and maintained the lead through the third quarter.  In the 4th period it looked like the Panthers might continue to hang around, but a technical foul with 6 minutes left resulted in a 4-point possession for the Knights, stretching the lead to 16 and effectively putting the game out of reach.  The Knights pushed the lead to 22 before clearing the bench and closing out a satisfying 19-point win.

 Gayhart led all scorers with 17 points, and had another big day on the boards with 9 rebounds.  Matt Stevens stretched the defense with 13 points, and Derrick Harris had his customary 11 points and 8 rebounds. 

Key Stats:  The Knights out rebounded the Panthers 40 to 19 and hit 15 of 20 free throws.  

STATS | STANDINGS | PHOTOS (Courtesy of Jenny Haralamous)

The Knights - now 7-3 overall and tied with Wilmington for first place at 4-1 in the Cardinal conference - now head into the toughest portion of their schedule, with two games per week the rest of the way.

GO KNIGHTS!!!!!!!!!