KNIGHTS WIND UP SEASON WITH STRONG TOURNAMENT PERFORMANCES

Feb. 15, 2007
The Kings Knights 8A team finished with 2 strong performances in the FAVC East Side Tournament.

After playing Little Miami to a 45-40 win 4 days earlier, the Knights put away Little Miami 36-20 in the opening round of the FAVC tournament. Steve Michalak provided a great defense effort, holding Little Miami's best offensive player scoreless. Kyle Schumacher and Jonny Brewster lead the offensive attack, both contributing in double figures. Outstanding team effort highlighted by a significant improvement on defense (cutting Little Miami's offensive production in half from earlier in the week) and improved offensive performance breaking down the Little Miami 1-3-1 defense on a regular basis proved the difference.

Thursday night the Knights faced undefeated Winton Woods in the semi-finals. Winton Woods had only had one very close game all season. The Knights well rested, from the day off from school, showed up in full force to provide one of their top performances of the season. As the teams entered the locker room at half-time the score was 25-21. Winton Woods started to realize that this was not going to be one of their traditionally easy wins. The Knights came out of the locker room and went on a 8 point run and had their eyes set on an upset as they took a 4 point lead half-way through the third quarter. Kings 1-3-1 defense seemed to take the Warriors out of their physical, athletic game as Coach Knott continued to adjust the variations on the defense. Winton Woods went on a 6 point run to end the quarter to take a 2 point lead into the fourth quarter. Winton Woods widened the lead to 6 with a little under 3 minutes remaining in the game and David Parker had to leave the game after being undercut on a layup and falling hard on his tailbone. The game was closer than the final score indicates as Winton Woods did a very effective job at the free throw line as the Knights were forced to foul to stop the clock late in the game. Jason Crull lead the Knights with 15 points and the entire team left everything they had on the court. While the game didn’t end with a “W” and a chance to repeat as tournament champs, the boys pulled together one more time for an outstanding effort.

This group of boys has tremendous potential. They faced a huge amount of adversity this year and learned lessons early in their careers that will make them better people and athletes as they mature. As a full unit, they were 8-2 with significant wins over Mason and Nagel-Silver (Turpin). They tended to play their best games against the best competition.   They finish their Jr. High career under the leadership of Coach Matt Knott with a 25-8 record, an undefeated conference championship season, and a tournament championship. With dedication and commitment over the summer, we can expect big things in 2007/08 from this group of athletes!

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