JEFFERSON TWP — Lauren Cihonski clutched the bouquet of flowers given to her on Senior Night under her left arm and wiped her eyes with shaking hands.

They were tears of joy.

Cihonski, a senior forward on the Knoch girls basketball team, kissed a layup off the glass with three seconds remaining to give the Knights a 53-52 home win over Freeport Monday night.

The emotion of the game-winning shot and the victory overwhelmed Cihonski after the game.

“We practiced so hard for this for so many days,” Cihonski said, lips quivering, cheeks ruddy, before pausing to collect herself again. “I'm speechless right now.”

Knoch, though, talked the loudest when it mattered most.

There was a lot on the line for the two teams. Both entered the game 10-2 in the section behind undefeated juggernaut North Catholic and the game was essentially a battle for second place.

Freeport beat Knoch, 53-39, just a few weeks earlier and the Knights were determined not to lose again to the Yellowjackets.

Certainly not on their own court on Senior Night.

“We knew from the beginning of the season (Freeport) was our biggest competition,” Cihonski said. “We wanted to beat them so badly.”

Freeport, though, was in control for most of the game and took its biggest lead of the night at 45-34 with three minutes left in the third quarter.

The Yellowjackets looked poised to pull away.

The Knights had other ideas.

Knoch (16-5, 11-2) closed the quarter on an 11-1 run to draw to one heading into the fourth quarter.

“It all started on defense,” said senior guard Madilyn Boyer. “We just needed to play good, solid defense and then our offense will come. And it did.”

Freeport (13-6, 10-3) squandered several opportunities to put some distance between it and Knoch, but was 3-for-11 from the field in the fourth quarter and 0-for-4 from the line.

The Yellowjackets were 1-for-8 on free throws in the second half.

“This is a game we should have won,” said Freeport coach Fred Soilis.

Boyer gave Knoch a 51-50 lead — its first advantage since early in the second quarter — on a 3-point play with a little more than two minutes remaining.

The score stayed that way until Freeport senior guard Sidney Shemanski got a rebound and put-back with 13 seconds left for a 52-51 Yellowjacket lead.

Freeport got the ball back with 10 seconds left, but Knoch got a big break when the Yellowjackets were called for a moving screen on an inbound play.

That set up a wild final 10 seconds.

Knoch freshman point guard Nina Shaw penetrated and dished to senior Abbey Shearer, who found Cihonski all alone under the basket for the game-winning shot.

“It was so special because it was senior to senior,” Boyer said.

Knoch coach Chris Andreassi said there was no set play.

Not with Shaw's quickness.

“Don't think I drew that play up,” Andreassi joked. The plan was, 'Get the ball in Nina's hands and get it moving,' and that's what happened. Nina gets the ball and she makes stuff happen.

“That's what we work on all the time,” Andreassi added. “That dribble-drive.”

Shaw also contributed in the scoring column with 16 points. She hit four 3-pointers, all of them huge.

Boyer paced the Knights with 19. Cihonski scored all 10 of her points in the second half, no two bigger than her final two.

“We knew we had to get that ball in that basket any way we knew how to do it,” Cihonski said. “And we did that.”

For Freeport, the loss was particularly tough to swallow.

Shemanski scored 16 points and Harley Holloway added 15 off the bench for the Yellowjackets, but they were outscored 19-7 after taking their biggest lead of the game.

“The best we can do is just move on from this game,” Shemanski said. “We didn't play our best tonight.”

“It happened. What are you going to do?” Soilis said. “You can't dwell on it.”

FREEPORT 52

Sam Clark 3-10 1-4 9, Maddie Clark 2-8 2-4 6, Grace Soilis 1-4 0-0 2, Sidney Shemanski 7-15 1-4 16, Melaina Dezort 2-3 0-0 6, Harley Holloway 6-13 0-2 15, Louisa Fennell 0-1 0-0 0, Ava Soilis 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 21-54 4-14 52.

KNOCH 53

Julia Burgard 0-0 0-0 0, Jaylee Lassinger 1-2 0-0 3, Abbey Shearer 0-3 0-1 0, Madilyn Boyer 6-14 6-7 19, Lauren Cihonski 4-9 2-2 10, Nevaeh Ewing 2-5 0-0 5, Nina Shaw 5-12 2-5 16, Megan Vasas 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 18-45 10-15 53.

Freeport 10 20 16 6 — 52

Knoch11 16 18 8 — 53

3-point goals: Freeport 5 (S. Clark 2, Shemanski, Dezort 2); Knoch 7 (Lassinger, Boyer, Ewing, Shaw 4)

Tuesday: Freeport at Fox Chapel

Thursday: Knoch at North Catholic