KARNS CITY — It was an early knockout at Karns City High School on Thursday night.

Knoch jumped out to an 11-0 lead and maintained a double-digit advantage through the final three quarters en route to a 63-29 boys basketball non-conference victory over Karns City.

The Knights (3-3) were coming off a heartbreaking loss at the buzzer to Kittanning on Tuesday, but showed no signs of a hangover in the opening minutes against the Gremlins.

“I was really interested to see how these guys would bounce back,” said Knoch coach Ron McNabb. “I thought we came out and competed really hard.”

Chris Kier, Austin Miller and David Gallagher drained 3-pointers to stake the Knights to an early 9-0 lead.

“Our strategy was to start in a zone (defense) and make them hit those (long-range) shots,” said Karns City coach Chris Bellis, “and they hit them.”

Dakota Bruggeman came away with a steal and lay-up to push the Knights' advantage to 11, before a Tyler Kepple 3-pointer finally put the Gremlins (3-2) on the scoreboard with 2:40 remaining in the first quarter.

McNabb was pleased to see his team seize the early momentum.

“It's huge. You could just see their confidence level rising,” the Knoch coach explained. “It gave them a little more energy, a little better bounce in their step.”

Miller put an exclamation point on the first frame with a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from more than 10 feet beyond the arc. The junior guard outscored the Gremlins in the first by a 9-8 margin, sinking 3-of-4 shots from downtown.

While Miller provided most of the perimeter scoring, Marc Vaughan, Bruggeman and Matt Zanella dominated the paint. The trio combined to shoot 19-of-25 from the field — 76 percent — and helped the Knights attain a 30-13 rebound advantage.

“They have some big, strong kids and we just didn't have anyone that could match up with them,” said Bellis.

Vaughan led Knoch with 16 points, while Miller and Bruggeman tallied 14 apiece. Zanella scored eight points and pulled down a game-high six rebounds. Alex Campbell distributed a game-high five assists for the Knights.

Tyler Kepple was the only Gremlin to score double figures with 15 points and shot 4-for-8 from 3-point range. Andrew Johnston recorded seven points.

Knoch held Karns City to 26.3 percent shooting thanks to a strong man-to-man defense which did not allow the Gremlins to find many open looks.

“That's one of my staples. I'm a big believer in man-to-man,” said McNabb. “We need to hunker down and play hard for 32 minutes defensively and if we're not shooting the ball well, that will keep us in it.

“There's a minute left, we're winning pretty big and we had guys diving on the floor. That's Knoch basketball,” he added. “I was happy with our effort tonight.”

Although the Gremlins shot poorly, Bellis was encouraged by his team's continual effort to drive to the hoop.

“Even though we didn't have much success, our kids took the ball to the basket fairly strong,” said the Karns City coach. “They didn't get discouraged or anything, they kept going hard to the basket.

“Any time you play a team that physical, it's going to make you better,” Bellis added. “That's what we're trying to do in our non-conference games, make us better.”

KNOCH 63

Austin Miller 5-9 0-0 14, David Gallagher 2-4 0-0 5, Dakota Bruggeman 7-10 0-1 14, Marc Vaughan 8-10 0-2 16, Chris Kier 1-2 0-0 3, Ben Pfieffer 0-3 0-0 0, Matt Zanella 4-5 0-0 8, Alex Campbell 0-2 0-0 0, Asa Adams 0-0 1-2 1, Troy Hixson 0-0 0-0 0, Caleb Thorn 1-1 0-0 2, Adam Albert 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 28-47 1-5 63.

KARNS CITY 29

Andrew Johnston 2-6 3-6 7, Tyler Kepple 5-11 1-2 15, Ryan Pfeifer 0-1 0-0 0, Austin Murray 0-1 0-0 0, Josh Wallace 0-7 0-2 0, David Olszak 1-2 0-0 2, Logan Moroney 1-2 1-1 3, Nathan Weckerly 0-1 0-0 0, Christian Turner 1-4 0-0 2, John Snyder 0-0 0-2 0, David Markel 0-1 0-0 0, Ethan Conto 0-1 0-0 0, Luke Booher 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 10-38 5-12 29.

Knoch 21 10 19 13—63

Karns City8 5 8 8—29

3-point goals: Knoch 6-11 (Miller 4-6, Gallagher 1-2, Kier 1-2, Pfieffer 0-1). Karns City 4-15 (Kepple 4-8, Wallace 0-5, Turner 0-1, Markel 0-1).

JV: Karns City 38, Knoch 35, OT. (KC: David Olszak 8, Nathan Weckerly 7. K: Troy Hixson 13, Chris Law 10.)

Thursday: Knoch at Freeport Tournament; Karns City at Keystone.