Knoch falls at Hampton
By Frank Richetti
Eagle Correspondent
HAMPTON TWP — Liam Mignogna lifted Hampton into sole possession of first place in Class 4A Section 1 with a buzzer-beater to take down Knoch in boys basketball on Friday night.
Hampton (11-2, 4-0) came away with a 51-49 victory.
Peter Kramer led the Talbots in scoring with 29 points — including a go-ahead three with 2:20 remaining in a back-and-forth thriller.
With 3.4 seconds left in the game, Hampton coach Joe Lafko called a timeout to draw up a play for Kramer. But he also prepared his team for a second option in case Kramer couldn’t get open — a slip cut towards the basket from Mignogna.
Kramer was denied the ball, forcing the inbound to go to Mignogna and the rest was history.
“We talked about that in the timeout,” Lakfo said. “The slip cut was the second option, so we had that screener action. Robert [Coll] did a great job finding him, he threw it up high, and Liam made a nice shot to win the game.”
The gym erupted as Hampton players piled on top of Mignogna at center court while the Knights (10-3, 3-1) walked off the floor in disbelief.
Knoch coach Alan Bauman said that there is a lot to build on despite the loss.
“We just played with one of the top teams in 4A,” Bauman said. “We were right there, they made one more play than we did tonight. It was fun to be a part of, it was fun to be in that environment, the gym is sold out and hopefully we can grow from this and just keep moving forward.”
Knoch was led by sophomore point guard Jackson Bauman who led the Knights with 16 points.
“He’s our point guard, he makes us go,” Bauman said. “He makes the right play and has a good sense of when we need something. He’s controlling the game for us and he’s growing up, it’s a lot of fun to watch.”
Kramer filled up the stat sheet, but nothing came easy for him. Bauman said that he was proud of his team’s defensive effort against him — forcing the senior into a lot of tough looks.
“Peter made some really tough shots tonight when they needed it,” Bauman said. “I thought we forced him into a lot of really difficult shots. He earned all of it and I can’t say enough about Kaden Spencer’s effort defensively.”
Lafko said that big-time players play big in big games.
That’s exactly what Kramer did on Friday night.
“Peter Kramer came to play tonight,” Lafko said. “We count on him for that kind of scoring and in big games like this where you have two good teams playing in front of a packed house – he came through and had a great night.”
KNOCH 49
Jackson Bauman 4 4-4 16, Teegan Finucan 4 2-4 10, Kaden Spencer 5 0-0 10, Zane Pacek 4 0-0 8, Derek Lang 2 0-0 5.
HAMPTON 51
Peter Kramer 11 3-3 29, Alex Nyilas 4 1-1 12, Liam Migmogna 3 0-1 6, Robert Coll 2 0-0 4.
Knoch 11 11 17 10 -- 49
Hampton 14 10 11 16 -- 51
