Knoch dispatches Freeport, 52-33
JEFFERSON TWP — Over its last three outings, Knoch’s defense has allowed opponents an average of 23 points per game. That stingy unit, combined with an early offensive surge, helped the Knights pull away from visiting Freeport in the teams’ Section 1-4A girls basketball matchup Monday night.
Knoch came away from the contest 52-33 winners, with three girls — Nina Shaw, Naturelle Ewing, and Adah Fuller — scoring double figures.
After the Yellowjackets (4-7, 1-2) opened scoring, Ewing scored three baskets in under a minute to kickstart the Knights’ attack, which enjoyed a 13-point swing in the minute and a half that followed Freeport’s make.
“Coach is always telling us to come out strong and then just keep with it the entire game,” Ewing said. “Once you come out fast, it’s kind of hard for the other team to catch up to that.”
Knoch (5-4, 1-1) allowed the Ellis School four points and Seneca Valley 32 in victories at the Peter Sauer Memorial Tournament at Shady Side Academy last week. The success on that side of the court carried over.
“Defensively, we were pretty solid,” Knights coach Chris Andreassi said. “I thought we guarded well the whole night ... Offensively, I thought we attacked them pretty well in the first half.”
His side sunk nine three-pointers on the night, mainly because of the ‘Jackets defense inside. Knoch owned a dozen-point edge at the halftime break, even after Shaw’s buzzer-beating trey was waved off by officials. She finished with a game-high 15 points.
“Freeport’s always tough defensively,” Andreassi said. “They take away the penetration and they do a good job on cuttersv— a lot of the things that we like to do offensively.”
‘Jackets coach Fred Soilis felt something was still to be desired.
“He’s got players that hustle,” he said of Andreassi. “What they did tonight wasn’t unexpected. I was hoping that we could slow them down ... The problem is our defense wasn’t where it should have been tonight. And that was the difference.”
A big reason for Knoch’s historic postseason run a year ago was the momentum they built at this same time in the regular season.
“We’re not thinking of that,” Andreassi said. “Right now, we’ve got Derry Thursday night and I don’t want to look past that. I’m not thinking going into February where we’re going to be, because that just gets you in trouble.”
“Our last two games have been really good — what we normally can do — so as long as we can keep doing that, we’ll be good,” Ewing said.
Freeport doesn’t have much time to head back to the drawing board. The ‘Jackets host non-section foe Hampton Tuesday. What is the process of getting them to coalesce on defense?
“Nothing special, other then just keep reminding them how they have to play defense,” Soilis said. “It’s an effort thing and a willingness thing.”
Ewing and Fuller both posted 11 points for the hosts. Melaina DeZort paced Freeport with nine points. Ava Soilis added another seven, all from the free throw line.
FREEPORT 33
Melaina DeZort 4 0-3 9, Ava Soilis 0 7-9 7, Brooke Kmetz 3 0-0 6, Giacinta Pugliese 1 3-4 5, Natalie Volek 1 0-0 3, Tessa Keller 1 1-1 3. Totals: 10 11-17 33.
KNOCH 52
Nina Shaw 5 2-2 15, Naturelle Ewing 4 2-2 11, Adah Fuller 4 0-0 11, Megan Vasas 2 2-4 6, Hattie McGraw 1 2-2 5, CeCe Kosecki 1 0-0 3, Paige Rodgers 0 1-4 1. Totals: 17 9-14 52.
Freeport 10 8 2 13 — 33
Knoch 19 11 11 11 — 52
3-point goals: Knoch 9 (Shaw 3, Fuller 3, McGraw, Kosecki, Ewing); Freeport 2 (DeZort, Volek)
