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Knights defense impressive in win over Owls, finish regular season 18-7

By Craig Olson, 02/28/23, 10:15PM CST

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West Central Area's defense forced 28 turnovers and held Hancock to a season low 32 points in a 58-32 win in Hancock on Tuesday night.

The Knights had balanced scoring led by Bryce Kjesbo 15, Cole Anderson 12, Cam Anderson 9, Jacob Strunk 7, Mitch Dewey 6, Ben Bye 5, and Sam Hanson 4.

Hudson Versteeg led the Owls with 14, followed by Jackson Koehl 8, Chase Evink 6 and Jared Koehl 4.

The Knights held the Owls to 31% shooting (13-42) and 13% on threes (2-16). The Owls were 4-9 from the line. The Knights were 25-62 for 41% and 7-28 on threes for 25%.  They were 1-4 from the line.  Rebounding stats were unavailable.

Knights Coach Kraig Hunter said, "Obviously we were really happy with our defensive energy. We didn't let their offense get in any rhythm and we created a lot of havoc with deflections and steals.  The two players that stood out to our coaching staff were Nas Dotts and Ben Bye. They led our defense. Nas was all over the floor again guarding different people, playing great help defense and rebounding from the guard position. He took good care of the ball and set up a few easy baskets with some nice passes on the offensive end as well. The Owls dominant center Chase Evink scored a season low 6 points, however he didn't score any of them vs Ben Bye when Ben was defending him.  Ben continues to also be a dominant rebounder for us grabbing 8 rebounds again."

Rebounding leaders for the Knights were Strunk 9, Bye 8, Dotts 4 and Cole Anderson 4.  Assist leaders were Dotts and Strunk with 4 each, Cam Anderson with 3, and Cole Anderson, Kjesbo, and Dewey with 2 each.  Cam Anderson was the steal leader with 4, Cole Anderson, Strunk and Dewey all had 3, Dotts, Kjesbo and Bye all had 2.

The Knights finished the regular season 18-7 and earned the 4th seed in Section 3AA North. They will host the #5 seeded New London-Spicer Wildcats on Saturday in a first round playoff game.  Morris is the #1 seed facing #8 Minnewaska.  Eden-Valley Watkins is the #2 seed hosting #7 ACGC and #3 Paynesville will host #6 Litchfield.