COLLIER TWP — Knoch never ran short of effort. It just ran out of time.

Austin Hannes sank a pair of free throws with 9.3 seconds left. P.J. Gourley followed with a steal and dished off to Jackson McKee, who laid it in to pull the Knights within two points of Chartiers Valley.

But only 1.5 seconds remained. The Colts got the ball in-bounds and held on for a 60-58 Section 2-5A boys basketball win at home Tuesday night.

“That’s a good basketball team,” Chartiers Valley coach Tim McConnell said. “They are going to win some games in the second half of section play.

“The fact they only have one (section) win now shows how good our league is.”

The loss was Knoch’s third straight and dropped the Knights to 6-5 overall, 1-4 in section play.

“It’s a meat grinder,” Knoch coach Ron McNabb said. “There are long road trips like this one to go with the quality teams you have to play. We’ve got our work cut out for us now, but we can still get it done.”

They nearly got it done on this night.

On the road against one of the top teams in WPIAL Class 5A, Knoch shot out to a 24-15 lead. P.J. Gourley came off the bench to score nine straight points for the Knights, hitting a trey, sticking back a pair of offensive rebounds and canning a layup.

Chartiers Valley (8-1, 2-0) responded with a 16-3 run and a 31-27 lead with 1:22 left in the first half.

“Our big guys gave them match-up problems,” McNabb said. “Then they shot the lights out on us.”

The Colts’ run was fueled by sophomore guard Joe Pipilo. Fresh off a 31-point performance in the JV game, Pipilo came off the bench to sink four treys in the second quarter.

“Our offense was struggling. They were cutting off our penetration to the basket,” McConnell said. “Joe came in and gave us the jolt we needed. He has a tremendous shot.”

A shot the Knights were well aware of.

“We knew who he was and what he could do,” McNabb said. “We just lost him a couple of times and it hurt us.”

Still, the Knights never went away. The lead changed hands eight times and the score was tied on six occasions.

A Gourley layup and Devin Campbell free throw gave Knoch a 49-46 edge with 6:11 to play. But Pipilo knotted the game with his sixth trey of the night and senior point guard Ross Wilkerson gave Chartiers Valley the lead it never lost with a 3-pointer of his own with 4:49 left.

Wilkerson’s trey — his fourth of the game — also gave him his 1,000th career point. McConnell called a timeout to present him the ball.

“We’ve had a lot of 1,000-point scorers here and Ross deserves to be right there with those guys,” McConnell said.

Caleb Zajicek sank two free throws with 12.2 seconds left to give the Colts their biggest lead of the night at 60-54 before Knoch’s flurry in the closing seconds.

Gourley had 15 points and five rebounds for the Knights. Hannes added 13 points, four rebounds, four assists and three steals. Mac Christy contributed 10 points, seven rebounds and four assists.

“This was probably the best game we’ve played so far this year,” Hannes said. “If we make two or three more free throws, we’re right there.”

Knoch was 12 of 19 from the line. Chartiers Valley sank all eight of its free throws.

“We weren’t nervous at all. It was one of those nights the shots just didn’t fall,” McNabb said.

Wilkerson had 20 points and five assists for Chartiers Valley. Pipilo had 18 points, Zajicek 10. Raymond Olkosky grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds.

KNOCH 58

Austin Hannes 5-123 3-3 13, Devin Campbell 2-7 3-4 9, Mac Christy 4-8 1-7 10, Josh Knochel 2-3 1-2 6, Jackson McKee 2-4 0-0 5, P.J. Gourley 5-8 4-4 15. Totals: 20-43 12-19 58.

CHARTIERS VALLEY 60

Ross Wilkerson 7-13 2-2 20, Joe Pipilo 6-11 0-0 18, Nick Jessloski 0-6 2-2 2, Coleman Vaughn 1-4 2-2 4, Raymond Olkosky 3-4 0-0 6, Caleb Zajicek 4-8 2-2 10. Totals: 21-45 8-8 60.

Knoch 20 10 16 12 — 58

Char Valley15 16 13 16 — 60

3-point goals: Campbell 2, Christy, Knochel, McKee, Gourley; Wilkerson 4, Pipilo 6

JV: Chartiers Valley, 62-43 (K: Julian Sanks 16, Brady McKee 11; CV: Joe Pipilo 31

Friday: Hampton at Knoch