JEFFERSON TWP — Having captured the West Shamokin Tournament last week, Knoch coach Sean O'Donnell was hoping to carry that momentum into section play.

His squad certainly did on Thursday.

Against Highlands, the Knights scored 33 of the game's first 38 points and cruised to a 53-41 Section 1-AAA victory.

“We were talking about that,” Knights coach Sean O'Donnell said. “We played a tough schedule early. We had gotten crushed by Plum (52-24 on Dec. 20) but that got us going.”

The Knights went on to defeat West Shamokin and Washington in the tournament and, with Thursday's win, evened Knoch's record to 4-4, 1-0 in the section.

Knoch opened the game on a 12-0 run with eight points coming from Brooke Armahizer and four from Sam Logan.

The Knights held an 18-5 lead early in the second quarter before a 15-0 spurt in a 2-minute, 44-second span gave the team a 33-5 advantage with 4:08 before halftime.

“We had the last four days to prepare,” said Rams coach Ron Lang. “Every day, we knew what we had to do and we did it in practice. It's just our inexperience.”

Highlands, however, did not go away quietly and pulled itself back into the game.

The Rams (1-6, 0-1) closed out the half by scoring the final seven points with six coming from Nikki Misejka.

After Amber Henzel opened the second-half scoring with a basket to give Knoch a 35-14 lead, Highlands went on a 9-1 run — all from the hand of Carly Hines, the final six on a pair of 3-pointers — to trim the deficit to 36-23 with 3:59 remaining in the third quarter.

“We wanted to to win the second half,” Lang said. “We're young and very inexperienced. It's going to be a long year, but we'll get better by February.

“Hopefully, the second time around we'll be more competitive. We're hoping to get better each game, each half, each quarter,” Lang added.

Knoch would respond with baskets by Celina Sanks and Logan and two from Angela Cress to take a 44-23 lead with 1:05 left in the frame.

“We kind of expect a lot of Celina and Sam and Brooke, but Angela gave us a boost off the bench,” O'Donnell noted.

Knoch would hold a 51-28 lead before the Rams chipped away, closing the game on a 13-2 run.

“I told the girls I give (Highlands) a lot of credit,” O'Donnell said. “I felt we let up. I feel we're pretty young. We have to get that killer instinct.”

Still, the Knights spread around the scoring as Armahizer had 12 points and Sanks and Cress added 10 apiece. Savanna Steffen added seven points and Logan and Kate Miller had six each.

“In the win against Washington, we had only four scorers,” O'Donnell said. “I told them if we're going to win any decent amount of section games, we have to score all the way down.”

Hines and Misejka scored 16 and 15 points, respectively, to lead the Rams.

HIGHLANDS 41Carly Hines 6 1-2 16, Nikki Green 0 0-0 0, Sara Witucki 0 0-0 0, Nikki Misejka 5 5-7 15, Channing James 1 0-0 2, Sam Witucki 1 0-1 2, DeeDee Hronis-Pittman 0 0-0 0, Kadedra Johnson 3 0-0 6.

Totals: 16 6-10 41.

KNOCH 53Celina Sanks 4 2-2 10, Kate Miller 2 1-3 6, Abbie Thrower 0 0-0 0, Savanna Steffen 3 1-2 7, Sam Logan 3 0-0 6, Angela Cress 5 0-0 10, Brooke Armahizer 6 0-0 12, Megan McCormick 0 0-0 0, Maddy Bricker 0 0-0 0, Amber Henzel 1 0-0 2, Sarah Brasili 0 0-0 0.

Totals: 24 4-7 53.

Highlands 2 12 11 16—41Knoch 16 17 12 8—533-point goals: Highlands 3 (Hines 3); Knoch 1 (Miller).

Tuesday: Knoch at Valley