SAXONBURG— Valley tried to give it away. Knoch just wouldn't accept it.

The Vikings never led by more than five points and missed seven free throws in the final 1:32 Saturday, but held on for a 51-48 boys basketball victory at Knoch.

The win pulled Valley (14-9, 7-5) into a third-place tie with the Knights (13-10, 7-5) in Section 1-AAA. It also denied Mars a playoff berth.

"Ilike the way we're playing right now,"Valley coach Herm Benson said, his team winning its fourth straight game. "We came into this weekend looking for momentum going into the playoffs and we got it."

Before winning at Knoch Saturday, the Vikings knocked off section co-champion Highlands Friday night.

Knoch enters the playoffs on a three-game losing streak and dropped five of its final six regular season games.

"The playoffs are a new season,"Knoch coach Chris Andreassi said. "We won't play for a week now and that gives us time to work on the part of the game we're lacking right now."

That would be protecting the basketball.

The Knights suffered 21 turnovers Saturday and gave the ball away on four consecutive possessions during the fourth quarter.

"You can't win close games doing that,"Andreassi said. "Sometimes it'd be a bad pass or we'd dribble into traffic. We turned it over in different ways."

Valley's 37-32 lead with 2:51 left in the third quarter was the biggest lead for either team all day, but the Knights wiped that out with a 6-0 run. Knoch's final lead was at 45-43 when Mike Gallagher knocked down a trey with 5:05 remaining.

Lay-ups by freshman Mike Trenski and Troy Hill regained the lead for Valley, which failed to pull away down the stretch because of missing seven of 11 free throws.

The Vikings were 8 of 18 at the line for the day.

"We've got to do a better job of making free throws,"Benson allowed. "The problem was we kept putting the ball in the hands of the guys who don't do well at the line.

"If we get the ball to a guard in those situations, we'd be OK."

Knoch trailed 50-45 when Valley's Ryan Orr missed the front end of a one-and-one with 16.7 seconds left. The Knights turned the ball over after grabbing the rebound, but Orr missed two more free throws with nine seconds to go.

Gallagher drained a trey to pull the Knights within 50-48 with 3.8 seconds on the clock. After Justin Lookabaugh sank one of two free throws for the visitiors, Rob Briggs' desperation 3-point shot from just inside the mid-court stripe deflected high off the glass.

Briggs sank just three of 15 shots from the floor Saturday. Knoch was 4 of 11 at the foul line.

"Our shooting was off today,"Andreassi said. "When you're shooting the ball well, it masks the problems in your game. When you're not shooting well, it exposes them."

Gallagher paced the Knights with 15 points, Briggs had 10 points and 11 rebounds. Knoch had a 30-27 edge on the boards.

Hill, averaging a double-double this year, had 20 points and 12 rebounds for Valley. Bradley Flenory had 12 points.

The score was tied eight times Saturday and the lead changed hands on 10 occasions.

VALLEY 51Mike Trenski 3-10 1-4 7, Bryan Rayburg 0-1 0-0 0, Justin Lookabaugh 2-6 3-4 8, Troy Hill 10-15 0-1 20, Bradley Flenory 3-12 4-4 12, Gary Jones 0-0 0-2 0, Ryan Orr 1-4 0-3 2, Dan Zsolcsak 1-1 0-0 2.

Totals: 20-49 8-18 51

KNOCH 48Shawn Samek 2-3 0-1 5, Mike Gallagher 6-9 1-2 15, Andrew Wirtz 2-2 0-0 5, Kyle Reiser 4-8 1-2 9, Rob Briggs 3-15 2-4 10, Alex Whisler 2-4 0-2 4.

Totals: 19-41 4-11 48

Valley 14 11 14 12—51Knoch 11 12 14 11—483-point goals: Lookabaugh, Flenory 2; Samek, Gallagher 2, Briggs 2

JV: None

Next: WPIAL playoffs, TBA