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The Knights pounded the Panthers Friday night 34-20 to wrap up the 2007-08 season with a 15-5 record and a three way tie for the conference championship with Walnut Hills and Turpin.      Blake Bates lead the Knights in scoring with 11 contributing 7 in the 4th quarter.    Jason Crull sparked the Knights at the end of the 1st half with 5 straight points to put the Knights on top 14-8 going into the locker room.   

The Knights wrap up as co-conference champions with an 8-2 FAVC Cardinal division record tied with Walnut Hills and Turpin who all split with each other this year.     The Freshmen started the season 0-3 seriously hampered by injury/illness.  The Knights broke out of the losing column with a comeback win at Loveland and went on a winning 9 straight, winning most by over 20.   The streak was broken by Mason’s sophmore team (rumor has it Mason was afraid to send their struggling Freshmen team over).   The Knights went 15-2 after getting healthy with their only other loss a heartbreaker at Turpin.     

The Knights met a hot shooting Harrison squad in the 1st quarter of Tuesday nights non-divisional match-up.    The Knights led by Blake Bates with 11 in the first half and 16 for the game pulled out an 18-14 lead at the first break.  

Solid defense dominated the second and third periods as Kings held Harrison to 6 points across the 2 quarters.

 The Freshmen went on to their 14th win of the season, 46-32.    The Knights were led by Blake Bates with 16 and Jonny Brewster with 15.

Season wraps up at Little Miami Friday night as the Knights look to secure at least a share of the conference title.

The pre-game talk - “patch me up Tammy, I got a Game to Coach” after Coach McClung took a pre-game cut to the eye.   As Knights fans poured in late for the game they ask, “Did Kevin get a tech?”  “Nope,”, came the reply, “he’s sitting down because he needs to go to the hospital for stiches.”.

 If that wasn’t frustrating enough for Coach, the Knights came out flat but squeezed out a 33-29 win on 4-4 free throw shooting from David Parker down the stretch.

 The Knights hold onto a share of the FAVC Cardinal division title with Walnut Hills and Turpin going into the final week of play.

The Knights bounced back from a frustrating loss at Turpin to beat West Carrollton on the road Tuesday night.    The Knights jumped out to an 11-0 lead in the first three minutes of the game and took a 20-2 lead at the break on lights out shooting and turnover forcing defense.       The Knights cruised to a 58-27 win in a game that saw 9 players score led by Blake Bates with 13.   Always hustling and tough nosed Ben Bennett fouled out taking 4 charges!   Buy him some milkshakes anyway Dad!      

The Turpin - Kings rivalry is developing into one of the best for the Freshmen class in the FAVC and Friday was another great game.    The Knights behind Jonny Brewster’s 13 first half points took a 22-19 lead into the locker room.    But the Knights had trouble scoring in the second half adding only 13 points in the final 2 quarters for a 35-38 defeat in this FAVC Cardinal division match-up.    The Knights made a run at the end as Turpin missed 7 key free throws in the final 90 seconds of the game to allow the Knights a shot at sending it to overtime. 

This is the second conference defeat and in looking at Walnut Hills web-site it seems that Kings-Walnut Hills-Turpin are all tied for first in the conference with 2 games remaining.  The Knights have Wilmington at home Friday and Little Miami on the road to wrap up the season and a great chance to control their destiny to be co-conference champions.

The Lebanon Warriors came out shooting Tuesday night and ran up a 10-2 lead before the Knights knew what hit them.     Blake Bates bailed the Knights out scoring the Knights first 7 points and David Parker nailed a quarter ending 3 to make it 1o-17 at the break.    The Knights dominated the last 3 quarters outscoring Lebanon 39-26 over the final 3 quarters of play.

The Freshmen came out of the locker room motivated to turn around their first quarter performance and went on a 7-0 run of their own to start the second half.  After knotting the game at 32-32 after 3 quarters, Kyle Schumacher led the Knights in the 4th quarter delivering a 3 point play and chipping in a couple key buckets to put the Knights up for good.   Jonny Brewster nailed the final 4 free throws of the game to put the nail on the coffin and send the Knights home with their 11th win of the year. 

The Freshmen headed to Amelia Friday night in a FAVC match-up and improved their conference record to 6-1 beating Amelia 45-25 on the road.     The Knights controlled the entire game leading 23-10 at the break and widening the lead through the second half.    The boys played extremely hard and the team delivered a balanced offensive attack with Blake Bates scoring 7, Jason Crull, Ben Bennett, and Jamar Lewis contributing 6, Steve Michalak delivering 5, David Parker and Taylor Bockrath putting in 4, Jonny Brewster tossing in 3, and Brandon Byrd and Kyle Schumacher pitching in 2 a piece.  

The Freshmen team is learning how to win big this year.   Half the team’s 10 wins have been by 20 or more and in the majority of those games at least 8 players have been in the scoring column.    The Knights have 3 remaining FAVC match-ups with Turpin, Wilmington and Little Miami  with the opportunity to return to being conference champions.

The Knights Freshmen took on the Mason Sophomore team Tuesday night in a non-conference match-up at the Mill.   While the Freshmen looked forward to taking on their rival freshmen Comets, Mason loaded the bus with sophomores for the short trip to the K-house.    Kyle Schumacher got the night started with a couple quick baskets that put Kings out in front early, but a late first quarter surge put Mason ahead at the first break 8-12.     The Knights struggled in the second quarter, and Coach McClung made a mass exodus pulling all 5 off the court about half way through the quarter and the Knights went into the locker room down 8.      After the locker room discussion, the Knights came to play in the second half outplaying the older Comets the entire second half.    Late 4th quarter fouling, made the defeat look larger than it was as the Knights repeatedly cut the lead to 3 points in the 4th quarter.  

The Freshmen have been winning by 20 to 30 points a game since beating Wilmington in mid-December.  Without Matt Wagner, who is now starting at St. X, the Freshmen Comets are stuggling with a near .500 record.  In the end it was probably a better challenge for the Knights to take on the older team from the bigger school.      Clearly these FAVC Freshmen have proven this year they can compete effectively with GMC Sophomore teams being within 1 or 2 possessions late into the 4th quarter in both games.

Th Kings freshmen team started the second half of the season Friday night in a three way tie for first in the FAVC Cardinal division with Walnut Hills, and Turpin.     The Knights came into the game with an 8 game winning streak.  Their last loss was on November 30th against Walnut Hills 43-40 in the “Nut House” to open the FAVC Cardinal division season.

Friday night the Eagles jumped out to a 9-2 lead as the Knights struggled to find a way to score in the opening 3 minutes.     Jason Crull started a 4-4 3 point shooting streak in the final minute and a half of the first quarter to ignite the offensive attack and put the Knights ahead to stay.    Kings finished the first quarter with a 11-9 lead and expanded the lead to 23-13 at the break.  

Key Stat: the Knights controlled the boards on solid boxing out.  Walnut Hills brought 6′ 4″ Benson Browning (a JV starter) down to play in the freshmen game to try to secure an FAVC title, but he was held scoreless and rendered ineffective on the boards.   Outrebounded by 5′ 3″ Brandon Byrd who pulled down 2 rebounds and took a charge during the game.

The Knights shut out the Eagles in the 4th quarter to go on to a 42-18 win.     After falling behind 9-3 in the first 3 minutes, Kings went on to dominate 39-9 over the final 21 minutes of play.    Jason Crull led all scorers with 16 points, 12 to spark the first half offensive turnaround.   In a game that saw everyone contribute offensively.

The Knights move to 5-1 in the conference and 9-3 overall as they look forward to playing Mason Tuesday night at the Mill.

The Knights jumped out a 10 point lead in the first quarter and cruised in for a 53-34 win.    The Owls choked on the Knights press early in the game as Knights dominated early.     After maintaining the 9 or 10 point lead through the second and early third quarters, the Owls gained some momentum and made a run in the third quarter to cut the lead to 4, but the Knights defense stepped up again, closed the third quarter with a 10 point lead and blew it open in the fourth to finish with a 19 point win.    Blake Bates led all scorers with 16.    Steve Michalak (14) and Jonny Brewster (12) also contributed in double figures.   

Next up: Walnut Hills at home Friday night.   Walnut provided the Knights only loss in the first time through the FAVC Cardinal division.     With a healthy team and playing at home, we look for the Knights to avenge that early season loss.