The Knights met KBA rival Milford in the semi-finals of the FAVC East Side tournament Monday night. Kings jumped out to an early 6-2 lead, but a 3/4 court 3 to end the 1st quarter swung the momentum to Milford ending the quarter with a 10-10 tie. Milford dominated the second quarter to open up a 9 point half-time lead 17-25 as the 7th graders found themselves in some of their worst foul trouble of the season. The Knights rallied with 17 points in the fourth quarter, but came up short 36-46 in the end. Max Lerer led the Knights with a season high 20 and Justin Crull contributed 7 for the young Knights.
Overall an outstanding season under the direction of Coach Erik Poggi. The Knights delivered a big win over Winton Woods in overtime early in the year to give them their only defeat of the year, beat a very strong Buckeye division Nagel Blue team in the first round of the tournament, gave an outstanding Walnut Hills team one of their best games of the season and ran the table on the rest of the Cardinal division opponents.
A great group of kids and a great deal of promise for the future of Kings Athletics! Go Knights!
The Knights travelled to Wilmington to open up the first round of the FAVC Tournament against second place Buckeye Division opponent Nagel Blue (7-3 Buckeye Division, 11-3 overall) on Saturday. The Knights jumped out to a quick 11 point lead in the first quarter and controlled the entire game on the way to a 51-30 win. The Knights were led in scoring by Justin Crull with 16, Max Lerer with 13 and Zach Mueller contributed 7.
Next up a very strong Milford team with outstanding shooters and a dominating big man inside who placed a deceiving 3rd in the Buckeye Division losing a pair of heartbreaking losses to Nagel Blue. Gametime is 6:15 Monday at Wilmington. Click here for tournament pairing information.
Strong outside shooting early, hitting 5 3’s in the first half, provided the fuel for Walnut Hills to beat King’s 54-36 Wednesday night as the Knights wrap up an 8-2 FAVC Cardinal record and 12-2 overall record. Walnut Hills went unblemished in the FAVC regular season and Cincinnati Public Schools Holiday Tournament.
The 7th grade Knights played hard and battled back in the second quarter outscoring Walnut 17-13 to cut the lead to 32-24, but weak second half shooting (33% from the field and 50% from the free throw line) hurt the Knights chances of a comeback.
The Knights were led by Justin Crull with 12, Ryan Anthony with 9 and Max Lerer with 7.
The team now turns to the FAVC post-season tournament taking on a strong Nagel Blue team finishing 2nd in the Buckeye division behind Winton Woods with a 6-3 conference record and 10-3 overall. Gametime is Saturday at 11:30 at Wilmington. Click here for tournament pairings.
The Knights jumped out early at Little Miami Monday night to cruise to a 37-16 win and extend their FAVC Cardinal division record to 8-1 (12-1 overall). Max Lerer sparked the Knights early with 3 quick turnover baskets on the press as the Knights took a 16-6 lead at the end of the first break. Strong defense held the Panthers scoreless in the second quarter as the Knights took a 25-6 lead into the locker room. Max Lerer led the Knights in scoring and everyone on the team made significant contributions in this nice road win.
The 12-1 Knights host undefeated Walnut Hills Eagles Wednesday at home.
Brent Mathias sparked the Knights to a 15-0 start to Monday’s game over Nagel Silver with a couple big 3 pointers to start the game. Nagel fought back in the final minute of the first quarter and second quarter to cut the lead to 21-13 at the half. Justin Crull went on a 5 for 5 shooting streak in the 3rd quarter to lead the Knights to a 36-22 3rd quarter lead. The defense took over in the 4th quarter holding the Silverhawks scoreless in the final quarter for the 43-22 win.
The Knights are now 11-1 overall and 7-1 in the FAVC and look to wrap up the season next week on the road Monday at Little Miami before closing the season with Walnut Hills at home on next Wednesday.
The Knights jumped out to a 15-3 lead in the first quarter Wednesday night and pulled out to a 43-16 win vs. the Amelia Barons in a game that saw everyone contribute. The team went 9 for 12 from the Free Throw line, had 14 assists, and 15 steals and only 7 turnovers for the game. An extremely strong team effort by all measures.
The 7A team traveled to Wilmington Thursday night to play their 3rd game of the week and bounce back after their first loss of the year Wednesday night at Walnut Hills. The Knights jumped out to a first quarter 11-6 lead and you could sense the boys where a little off after the previous nights battle. Wilmington held the Knights to 7 points over the second and third frame to go into the final quarter down 18-22. Wilmington went on a 9-0 run to start the 4th quarter and it started to look like Knights didn’t have any gas left. Down 18-31, the young Knights reached down deep inside to deliver 15-2 run notching the game up 33-33. With seconds left, Wilmington had the ball at half court for a final attempt at the game winning shot. A poor inbounds pass was picked up by Justin Crull who took the ball to the rack, pump faked two Wilmington players and hit the game winner to finish off a 17-2 run in last half of the 4th quarter.
Max Lerer led the Knights in scoring with 12, Jordan Barnett nailed 4 straight clutch free throws during the 17-2 run, and Justin Crull started the run with a 3 point play and finished it with the game winning lay up. An exciting win for the team to start off the second tour through the FAVC. Coach Poggi did a great job keeping calm, and collected as he led the team during the comeback. Well, until the final buzzer rang when the jumping and flailing began. The boys really enjoyed seeing Coach enjoy the win!
The young Knights are now 9-1 overall, and 5-1 in the FAVC Cardinal division. They wrap up the regular season with 3 of their last 4 games at home.
The Knights ran into a very good Walnut Hills Eagles team on Wednesday Night and picked up their first loss of the year 36-47. The Knights won the tip and jumped out to a 4-0 lead on two Max Lerer field goals. The Eagles came back to take a 15-10 first quarter lead. The Eagles took a 11 point lead into the locker room 25-14 after a pretty good defensive quarter by both teams. The Knights struggled out of the locker room in the second half allowing Walnut to take a quick 8-0 run to start the third quarter, but than Kings put up their own 8-2 run to close out the 3rd quarter 25-37. The Knights owned the 4th quarter outplaying Walnut even before they substituted late in the game winning the final frame 11-10 and closing the game out 36-47.
The boys gave an outstanding effort, battling back to a 9 point game in the 3rd quarter after falling behind by 19 early in the period and played even for the entire second half (22-22).
Justin Crull led all scorers for the night with 16, mainly contributing offensively in the second half and Max Lerer delivered 10 points including the 4 points to start the game and put the Knights on top early.
The Knights jumped out to an 18-0 lead in the first quarter Monday night and never looked back. Solid defense and over 70% shooting from the field in the first half put this game out of reach before half as the Knights took a 27-5 lead into the locker room. Zach Mueller led all scorers with 10 points, Brent Mathias had a big 4th quarter and put up 8 points for game and everyone on the team contributed in a significant way in the 47-12 win. The young Knights look to close out the first time through the conference with a win Wednesday night on the road at Walnut Hills.
The Knights jumped off to a 12 point lead early, but the Hurricanes combined solid outside shooting and strong inside play to make a game of it by half-time. The Knights went into the locker room with a slim 23-19 lead.
After a lengthy half-time talk, the Knights came out of the locker room ready to play. Putting up 19 points, to finish the quarter with a 41-26 lead and never looking back. The boys wrapped up the night with a 48-35 win, their highest offensive performance of the year, and take a 3-0 conference record into next week’s home game Monday night against Little Miami.
