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Knights steamroll Warriors in the second half

By Craig Olson, 02/24/23, 11:00PM CST

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The WCA Knights hosted the hot BOLD Warriors on Friday night in Barrett. BOLD had won 14 of their last 16 games including a 72-58 win over the Knights in January.

The Knights had a 34-30 lead at halftime and outscored the Warriors 40-14 in the second half on the way to a 74-44 win. 

"That was probably the most complete basketball game we've played this year," said Knights Coach Kraig Hunter.  "Our defense is trusting each other playing together and was very active forcing 20 turnovers.  Best rebounding effort we've had all year with a 43-25 rebounding advantage. Eighteen offensive rebounds and 20 forced turnovers gives us a lot more possessions.  They are a big team that pounded us with their physicality last time, so that says a lot about the improvement of our kids' effort from the last time we played them.  Probably the best thing was on the offensive end. The kids were all playing for each other. They're all sacrificing for the good of the team and we had a lot of assisted baskets for the third game in a row now."

The Knights were 30-67 for 45% from the field and hit 36% of their threes (9-25). They were 5-12 from the line.  BOLD was 20-48 for 44% and only hit 3-15 threes. They were 1-5 from the free throw line. 

"Another big key was holding their leading scorer to two points on 1-12 shooting. Jacob Strunk had that job in man-to-man and our guards Nas Dotts, Mitch Dewey, and Bryce Kjesbo in forcing him into tough shots vs our zone," added Hunter.

Strunk had 21 points, 6 rebounds and 3 steals; Dewey had 11 points, 3 assists, 2 rebounds, and 2 steals; Kjesbo also had 11 points, led the team with 9 rebounds, added 3 assists, and 2 steals; Ben Bye had 10 points on (5-6) shooting along with 8 rebounds and 2 steals; Cam Anderson added 9 points, 2 rebounds, and 3 assists; Cole Anderson had 7 points, 5 rebounds and led the team with 5 assists; Sam Hanson added 3 points, Isaac Kreft had 2 points and 2 rebounds.  Dotts added 3 steals and 3 assists and Brett Amundson added 2 rebounds.   All seventeen Knight players that dressed saw action in the game.

Scoring for BOLD were Ryan King 17, Andrew Meyers 12, Zane Boen 8, Jack Gross 2, Brayden Gass 2, Matt Jacobs 2, and Dylan Weber 1.

The Knights are now 17-7 and have one regular season game left at Hancock on Tuesday night. BOLD falls to 16-8.