JEFFERSON TWP — The Greensburg Salem boys basketball team was powerless to stop Rob Briggs.

Or Michael Gallagher. Or Shawn Samek. Or even Aaron Boldy when crunch time came.

That helped Knoch avoid the indignity of frittering away a 20-point second-half lead in an 85-76 home nonsection win Friday night.

"The toughest thing to do in basketball is playing with a lead," said Knoch coach Chris Andreassi. "That's a learning process. We have to keep working on that. It's tough. You start thinking more — should I take this shot? Should I not?"

The Knights had a 17-point lead at halftime and when Briggs connected on a 3-pointer less than a minute into the third quarter, they had a 44-24 advantage.

Then the scoring-fest began for both teams.

Greensburg Salem scored 24 points in the first half and 52 in the final two quarters — yet still lost.

But Knoch matched the Lions nearly point for point. For a large chunk of the second half, the game had an NBA all-star game feel to it as players drove the lane like an open Montana highway.

Briggs scored 21 of his team-high 31 points in the second half as the Lions were at a loss to contain him.

Briggs also had 13 rebounds, four blocked shots and was 9-of-11 from the free throw line.

"The two guys I had inside guarding him are very inexperienced," said Greensburg Salem coach Paul Sapochnie. "Briggs pretty much took them to school."

In the first three quarters, it was Gallagher who was doing the lecturing, scoring 26 points in the first 24 minutes of the contest.

He was 6-of-8 from 3-point range and 6-of-7 from the line.

Still, the Lions nearly overcame the scoring spurts from Knoch's two stars.

Greensburg Salem cut the 20-point deficit to seven in the opening minute of the fourth quarter. Much of the run came from the line after Knoch got foul happy, which made Andreassi anything but.

"I couldn't tell who was down by 20 and who was up by 20," Andreassi said. "We have to work on that."

The Lions never got closer than seven points, despite a second-half shooting splurge by Lions point guard Chris Klimchock, who scored 19 of his 31 points in the second half.

But whenever it appeared Klimchock and the Lions were going to seize momentum, Briggs or Samek or even Boldy made a big shot to give Knoch some breathing room.

Samek hit two big layups in the fourth quarter. So did Boldy, his last layup giving Knoch a 10-point lead with a minute to play.

"It came from playing together as a team," Andreassi said. "We haven't done a real good job of that up to this point. Everyone contributed. By us playing as a team, Aaron was able to get those two big shots in the fourth quarter."

It might have been a nonsection win, but the victory over the Lions could prove to be more important than any other to the Knights in the future.

"That's why we play the nonsection schedule we play — to get us ready," Andreassi said. "If this win gets us ready for Tuesday (a section game against Highlands), then I'll take it."

GREENSBURG SALEM 76Jake Matthews 2-11 5-6 10, Chris Klimchock 11-29 5-7 31, Reggie Hainsworth 6-10 3-6 16, Aaron Allen 2-6 0-0 4, Bobby Davis 0-1 2-4 2, Jerry Cooley 2-8 5-6 9, Ryan Wolfe 1-2 1-2 3, Drew Manley 0-0 1-2 1.

Totals: 24-67 22-33 76

KNOCH 85Shawn Samek 5-8 0-3 10, Michael Gallagher 7-10 6-7 26, Kyle Reiser 1-2 4-6 6, Jake McTighe 3-6 0-0 6, Rob Briggs 10-20 9-11 31, Andrew Wirtz 1-5 0-0 2, Josh Lio 0-0 0-0 0, Aaron Boldy 2-2 0-0 4.

Totals: 20-53 19-27 85

Greensburg 9 15 28 24—76Knoch 17 24 19 25—853-point goals: Matthews, Klimchock 4, Hainsworth; Gallagher 6, Briggs 2

JV: Knoch 40-36

Tuesday: Highlands at Knoch

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