JEFFERSON TWP — Inside. Outside. It didn't matter.

The Knoch boys basketball team was hitting.

Buoyed by a career-high 21 points from junior guard David Gallagher and strong post play from Marc Vaughan and Matt Zanella, the Knights rolled to a 75-52 home win over winless Highlands Friday night.

Knoch (6-4, 2-2) has won three straight games by an average margin of 27 points. The Knights are starting to get the gist of first-year coach Ron McNabb's up-tempo, motion offense.

“It's fun to play up-tempo and not sit back and play 30-point games,” Gallagher said. “It's fun to get out and run the floor.”

And now, things are coming together quite nicely for Knoch.

The Knights jumped out to a 22-10 lead after the first quarter and led 30-13 midway through the second quarter before Highlands launched a rally.

The Golden Rams (0-11, 0-3) cut deeply into the Knoch lead, trimming the advantage from 27 points to just five in a little less than three minutes.

But Gallagher drained a big 3-pointer to put the Knights back up by eight.

In the second half, Knoch settled down and regained the momentum it had built in the game's first 12 minutes.

“I was disappointed in our defensive effort in the last few minutes of the first half,” McNabb said. “I didn't think we competed as hard as we should have, but they showed a lot of resiliency. They could have folded, but they came out in the second half and they really fought, got rebounds and got easy shots.”

Easy shots were the order of the day for Knoch. The Knights shot 59 percent from the floor. Gallagher was 8-of-14 shooting. Vaughn hit eight of his 12 shots for 17 points and Zanella was 7-of-11 of the bench for 14 points.

Austin Miller also cracked double digits for the Knights with 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting.

“It makes our deficiencies on defense not as glaring,” McNabb said. “We're really concerned about our defense.”

The concern deepened with the loss of reserve guard Alex Campbell before the game. Campbell injured his ankle during warm-ups.

“Alex is a very very good defender for us,” McNabb said. “He's tenacious. It was one of those freak accidents. We're keeping our fingers crossed that it's just sprained.”

HIGHLANDS 52

Anthony Jones 3-8 0-0 6, Julian Flenory 3-9 1-2 9, Mike Colfe 1-1 0-0 3, Tyler Alworth 0-5 5-8 5, Kalson Branch 6-11 1-4 14, Elijah Jackson 1-9 0-0 3, Ray DiPerna 0-0 0-0 0, Apuelay Frison 5-8 2-2 12, Levonie Martin 0-0 0-0 0, Brandon Burchette 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 19-51 9-16 52.

KNOCH 75

Austin Miller 6-10 3-4 16, David Gallagher 8-14 1-1 21, Asa Adams 0-1 0-0 0, Dakota Bruggeman 2-3 1-2 5, Matt Zanella 7-11 0-2 14, Marc Vaughan 8-12 1-2 17, Chris Kier 1-2 0-0 2, Ben Pfieffer 0-1 0-0 0, Troy Hixson 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 32-54 6-11 75.

Highlands 10 18 11 13—52

Knoch22 14 22 17—75

3-point goals: Highlands 5 (Flenory 2, Colfe, Branch, Jackson). Knoch 5 (Miller, Gallagher 4)

JV: Knoch 48-13

Wednesday: Deer Lakes at Knoch