February 1, 2008

            Hurricane Warnings were out Friday evening from the National Weather Service in Wilmington as their local boys boarded the bus and journeyed to the K-House to face the Knights. The men from Kings Mills had downed the Canes by 20 in their late December meeting up there. Now it was time to see if the same result would take place at The Mill.

Coach Poggi was dressed in his finest jacket as the team prepared to tip off their last home game of the season. However, a clerical error by the Wilmington Coaching Staff, when filling out the Scorebook, allowed the Knights to shoot a couple of Technical Foul Shots to start this game. Brooks Gear calmly sank both shots and the Knights were ahead 2-0 with 7:00 still on the clock. Andrew Winebrenner made a quick return to the bench after picking up two fouls in the first two minutes of the contest.  The Knights and Hurricane battled in this opening quarter with the home team holding a slight 12-9 lead at the completion of the first period of play.  Each team rolled lucky 7-‘s in the second quarter and the Knights maintained their 3 point lead as they went into half-time. Wilmington scored the first 4 points of the 3^rd quarter and took the lead. It was time for Coach Poggi’s jacket to come off, which he calmly handed to his personal assistant, Davis Jenkins.  Nick Shackelford’s buzzer beater gave the Knights a 30-25 lead at the end of the third period of play.

The start of the fourth quarter was delayed as one of the referees injured his knee at the end of the third period. Two of the referees, who were already preparing for the varsity game, hurriedly got dressed and the fourth quarter was played with three officials. The Knights were able to outscore the Canes 12-9, including three treys from Tyler Smyth, in the final quarter and come away with a 42-34 victory.

            Tyler Smyth claimed top scoring honors with 14. Andrew Winebrenner knocked down all 7 of his points in the third quarter. Brooks Gear chipped in 6. Phil Fox drained 5. Spencer Berlekamp nailed 4. Nick Shackelford and Kevin Hopperton each netted 2. Michael Olds rounded out the scoring with 1. Wilmington finished 3 for 10 from the Charity Stripe for 30%. Kings knocked down 10 out of 16 free throw opportunities for a 63% average.  

The victory brings the Knights overall season record to 15-4 and 8-1 in the FAVCC. They begin their final week of the season by journeying out to Harrison on Tuesday evening to take on the Wildcats.    Tip off is at 6 PM.  Go Knights!

- Scooter Knight