MANOR TWP, Armstrong County — Knoch boys basketball coach Ron McNabb was enthused following his team’s first test of the 2016-17 season.

Not only did the Knights dismantle Deer Lakes 49-27 in the opening game of the Armstrong Tip-Off Tournament on Friday, they did it without two of their starters.

Point guard Austin Hannes and forward P.J. Gourley, both seniors, were not available.

Hannes sat out due to what McNabb referred to as an “internal team decision”, while Gourley is nursing an injury sustained in a recent scrimmage.

When asked for his thoughts on Friday’s victory, McNabb replied, “I’m thrilled. With two of our top guys out, others had to step up. We needed to have the next-man-up mentality.”

The Lancers hung in during a back-and-forth first quarter, but the Knights outscored them 36-17 the rest of the way. Forward Mac Christy paced the effort with a game-high 20 points and added 11 rebounds.

In Hannes’ absence, sophomore Julian Sanks handled the duties at point guard for most of the game.

“He was great tonight,” said McNabb. “He did a good job of getting us into our offense.”

McNabb was not pleased with his defense in the first two quarters, despite a 26-19 lead at the break.

“I really got on the guys at halftime,” admitted McNabb. “In the second half, we were diving for loose balls, playing good defense. That’s Knoch basketball.”

The Lancers’ offense slowed to a trickle in the second half as the team scored just eight points, including two in the third period. No player for Deer Lakes scored more than seven points in the game.

“We were much more active on defense in the second half,” said McNabb. “We took care of the boards and outside of Mac, we were a pretty small team tonight.”

“We were terrible,” Deer Lakes coach Terrance Parham said of his team’s play in the third and fourth quarters. “We missed a ton of layups and Knoch made more plays than we did.

“I thought there were some questionable calls. We were 6-16 last year and I’m rebuilding the program. You have a couple things go against you and it’s tough to have the players keep that mind-set that no matter what happens in the game, we can still win.”

Knoch senior guard Devin Campbell finished with 14 points. All three of his 3-pointers came in the first half.

“Devin is an unselfish player and often looks for the open guy,” said McNabb, “but he hit some big shots for us tonight.”

Hannes is expected to be in the starting lineup Saturday when Knoch battles Armstrong in the tournament championship game. Gourley is out indefinitely.

DEER LAKES 27

Jake Spirnock 3 0-0 7, Noah Darsie 3 0-0 7, Alex Nichols 1 1-3 3, Marc Vrane 2 0-0 4, Connor Chirdon 0 2-2 2, Josh Solomon 0 2-3 2, Trevor Sutch 1 0-0 2, Robbie Yodanis 0 0-2 0, Jake Kelly 0 0-2 0, Ben Butler 0 0-0 0, Shane Yarussi 0 0-0 0. Totals: 10 5-12 27.

KNOCH 49

Devin Campbell 4 3-3 14, Mac Christy 8 4-4 20, Julian Sanks 1 0-1 3, Josh Knochel 1 0-0 3, Jackson McKee 2 0-0 5, Ben Lucas 1 2-4 4, Josh Campbell 0 0-0 0, Jesse Fessel 0 0-0 0, Fraser 0 0-0 0, Shreckengost 0 0-0 0. Totals: 17 9-12 49.

Deer Lakes 10 9 2 6 — 27

Knoch13 13 10 13 — 49

3-point goals: Deer Lakes 2 (Spirnock, Darsie); Knoch 6 (D. Campbell 3, Sanks, Knochel, McKee).

Saturday: Knoch vs. Armstrong, 7 p.m.