PANTEGO — The late tipoff brought on by an elongated overtime win from the jayvee girls did not shake the confidence of the Terra Ceia varsity squad on Tuesday, as the Knights took care of Hobgood, 42-34, in the conference opener.

While off to a bit of a slow offensive start this season, senior Taylor Newman seems to have continued her reputation as being one of the more scrappy, defensive-minded guards in the Tarheel Independent Conference. Newman applied relentless pressure in transition and forced eight steals to go along with her 12 points and seven assists.

“She’s struggling offensively now, but plays hard on both ends of the court and does whatever she can do to help the team,” said head coach Daren Hubers. “Her defense and ball handling are critical for what we’re doing.”

Three of Newman’s eight steals came in a strong defensive first quarter for the Knights. And while the scoreboard was blank through the first three minutes, Newman began finding her teammates in the open floor, as Hannah McDonald and Caitlin Griffin capitalized on opportunities.

Up 10-1 at the end of the first, Terra Ceia’s offense remained steady, but Hobgood finally began to get in a rhythm, spurred by center Taylor Smith’s aggressive play.

“We were trying to double team her every time she got the ball,” Hubers said. “We had somebody in front, somebody behind, but she’s tough to guard.”

Smith and Hobgood quickly began chipping away at Terra Ceia’s double-digit halftime lead with 13 points in the third quarter. With three minutes to go, buckets by Smith and Kaleigh Barwick narrowed the Terra Ceia lead to two, but the Knights’ Rebecca Harrison finished out the third quarter strong with a buzzer-beating layup.

“We played good defense mostly. We also had some fast-break points in the third quarter that helped us get some easy ones,” Hubers said.

In the fourth, Hobgood powered back again and was able to tie the game at 27. However, from that point on, Newman, Griffin and center Ragan Lefever began to take over defensively, opening on the door for the offense to widen the gap. Despite six points from Smith in the fourth, Terra Ceia walked away with the victory.

Smith finished with a game-high 23 points, while Harrison notched 11 points.

With the win, the Knights improve to 3-1 and will face Greenville Christian Academy on Friday.