BUFFALO TWP — Knoch's Rob Briggs was making a lot of good shots Tuesday — and he wasn't going to pass up a chance at taking them, either.

In a nonconference boys basketball matchup against Freeport, Briggs drained a 3-pointer with one minute remaining to tie the game, then scored underneath the basket with nine seconds left to give the Knights a thrilling 69-68 victory.

Briggs scored 24 of his game-high 30 points in the second half.

"We knew going in he was their go-to guy," said Freeport coach Mike Beale. "I thought we kept him in check in the first half. Once he got on a roll and hit a couple of big 3s, he was tough."

The game saw six lead changes and three ties over the final 3:30. The Yellowjackets built a 53-46 lead with seven minutes remaining before the Knights (3-2) went on a 9-2 run — with all nine points coming from Briggs — to tie the game at 55 with 5:04 left.

With the game tied at 63, Freeport's Nate Kotecki buried a 3-pointer with 1:08 left before Briggs hit a wide-open 3 at the top of the key eight seconds later to knot the game again.

"Honestly, I knew he was going to make it," said Knoch coach Chris Andreassi. "I saw it when he was going down the court before he even shot it. I turned to the kids and said this is great basketball."

"I was very confident," said Briggs of the shot. "Everything I was throwing was going in, and I was going to take advantage of it. You never know when that will ever happen again."

Kyle Reiser made one of two free throws to give the Knights a 67-66 lead with 43 seconds left but Brian Zimmerman answered by hitting both attempts of a 1-and-1 with 32 seconds left to give the Yellowjackets (3-1) the one-point lead.

With 12 seconds left, Reiser inbounded to Briggs, who drove in and scored the layup. It was Briggs who told Andreassi during the timeout that the play would pan out.

"He called that. He said, 'Coach, this'll work,'" said Andreassi. "He stepped up and took it. That's what good players do."

Freeport was setting up for the final shot when a Knoch defender slapped the ball out of bounds underneath the basket just before time expired.

The officials conferred and put one second back on the clock. Nate Kotecki lofted a pass to the left side of the free-throw line, but Zimmerman was off-balance when he took the shot and it fell short as the buzzer sounded.

Things started out well for Freeport, which used a 16-0 run to take an 18-3 lead with 2:54 left in the first quarter.

After both teams exchanged a free throw, the Knights scored 15 of the next 21 points to pull to 25-19 with 5:06 left before halftime.

"We know as coaches that baskets are worth only two or three points," said Andreassi. "You can't cut the score from 15 or 16 points on one shot. I didn't want the kids to fall into that mode. A couple of times we gambled, we double-teamed, we lunged for the ball."

"This was a real good game, a real intense game," said Beale. "This was the type of game we needed. The first three games we played well but we wanted a good, non-section game. We learned a lot about ourselves."

Reiser added 19 points for the Knights while the Yellowjackets had four players reach double figures: Kotecki and Brady Sherrieb (16), Zimmerman (12) and Cory Massart (10).

KNOCH 69Shawn Samek 1 4-5 6, Michael Gallagher 2 0-0 6, Kyle Reiser 8 3-9 19, Rob Briggs 14 0-0 30, Alex Whisler 4 0-0 8, Jake McTighe 0 0-0 0, Andrew Wirtz 0 0-0 0. Totals: 29 7-14 69.

FREEPORT 68Nate Kotecki 7 0-0 16, Cory Massart 4 2-2 10, Chris Tagmyer 3 2-2 8, Brian Zimmerman 3 6-11 12, Brady Sherrieb 6 1-2 16, Justin Bollinger 3 0-0 6, Matt Giesler 0 0-0 0, Miles Smolic 0 0-0 0. Totals: 26 11-17 68.

Knoch 10 15 21 23—69Freeport 21 10 18 19—683-point goals: Gallagher 2, Briggs 2; Sherrieb 3, Kotecki 2

JV: Knoch, 56-27

Friday: Knoch at Kittanning; Jeannette at Freeport