Knoch's Tavita Lio passes the ball around Karns City defender Brandyn Bowser, left, during the Knights' 75-27 boys basketball victory Thursday night.

JEFFERSON TWP — Knoch was searching for a little confidence this holiday season.

The Knights may have found it on Thursday.

Trailing 6-0 against Karns City, the Knights reeled off 19 consecutive points and cruised to a 75-27 victory.

The run helped the Knights open up an insurmountable 47-16 lead at halftime.

“As bad as we played against Deer Lakes (a 48-37 loss Tuesday), what our kids were lacking was confidence,” said Knoch coach Josh Shoop. “No confidence in shooting and no confidence in defense.

“It was a tough week with Indiana (a 70-48 loss Monday) and Deer Lakes, so I was glad the kids had success with what we're teaching them,” Shoop added.

“We've got to defend better than that,” Karns City coach Chris Bellis said. “We tried to pressure their guards early, but we didn't get back.”

The Gremlins (1-4) used a pair of 3-pointers by Tucker Preston in the first 37 seconds of the game before the Knights (2-4) erupted.

Their 19-point run took just less than five minutes with Dakota Bruggeman and Marc Vaughan scoring six points each and Jack Boros adding five to spearhead the charge.

An Ethan Williams basket with 1:51 left in the quarter would be the Gremlins' last basket of the half.

Their other eight points of the half came from the free-throw line (8-of-17).

Karns City would cut the deficit to nine points, 19-10, with 1:08 left in the first quarter, but the Knights used a three-pointer by Mike Cunningham and a Tavita Lio steal-and-score to kick-start a 22-2 run for a 41-12 advantage with 3:43 before halftime.

“I thought early in the game we got some decent looks at the basket,” Bellis said. “By the second quarter, they pressured our guards and we did not get as many good looks.”

Knoch had four players reach double figures in scoring — Bruggeman (15), Vaughan (14), Lio (13) and Cunningham (12) — and nine players reaching the scoring column while Karns City received 12 from Preston.

“That's really important to me,” said Shoop on his squad's sharing-the-wealth scoring.

“We want to play team basketball. When one guy is down, there's another to pick him up. This is not a one-man show. We want to spread it around.”

KARNS CITY 27Brandyn Bowser 0 4-6 4, Tyler Kepple 1 2-6 4, Brady Ellenberger 1 0-0 3, Tucket Preston 3 3-4 12, Justin Hutchison 0 0-0 0, Nathan Weckerly 0 0-0 0, Kyle Barger 0 0-0 0, Ethan Williams 2 0-1 4, Tom Stoughton 0 0-2 0, Andrew Johnston 0 0-0 0, Austin Murray 0 0-0 0, Dan Filges 0 0-0 0, Ryan Pfeifer 0 0-0 0, Logan Moroney 0 0-0 0, David Olszak 0 0-0 0.

Totals: 7 9-19 27.

KNOCH 75Jack Boros 2 1-1 5, Alex Strezeski 0 0-1 0, Dakota Bruggeman 7 1-3 15, Tavita Lio 5 1-1 13, Marc Vaughan 6 2-3 14, Alex Campbell 0 2-2 2, James Larrimer 0 0-0 0, Mike Cunningham 4 3-4 12, Tyler Smith 2 0-0 4, Andy Tuzikow 0 0-0 0, Ben Pfeiffer 1 0-0 2, Phil Kletzli 3 0-0 6, David Gallagher 1 0-0 2, Chris Kier 0 0-0 0, Connor Shinsky 0 0-0 0.

Totals: xx x-x xx.

Karns City 10 6 7 4—27Knoch 24 23 18 10—753-point goals: Karns City 4 (Preston 3, Ellenberger); Knoch 3 (Lio 2, Cunningham)

Tuesday: Karns City at Keystone; Knoch vs. Slippery Rock at Freeport Tournament