Lady Knights 34, Lady Raiders 31

 

After trailing by as many as seven points in the second half, the Lady Knights came roaring back in the final minutes to notch the win column on Tuesday night over Hobgood Academy.

The Lady Knights began the game on a 12-5 run, but that quickly dissipated with Hobgood hitting a couple of three’s and points off turnovers in the second quarter. In the second half, Hobgood extended their lead during a long Terra Ceia scoring drought. A steal from Carly James that turned into two points on the other end jump started the Lady Knights and sparked a run. Emily Roscoe hit two big threes to cut the Lady Knight’s deficit and the comeback was on.

Down by four with two and a half minutes left, Hensley Jordan nailed a 10-foot jump shot, and on the next possession James splashed a floater to tie the game. After giving up a basket on the other end, Lynn Van Staalduinen was fouled on the next two Knights’ possessions and knocked down all four free throws to regain the lead for good.

 

The Lady Knights’ defense made the big stops when they needed it most and Terra Ceia ended a three-game losing skid.

“We just started passing the ball more (at the end of the game) and finally got our shots to fall,” James said after the game. “We have to keep learning and work on our ball handling.”

The Lady Knights (5-5) end the first half of their season on a high-note and will have a couple weeks off for Christmas break. Their next matchup will be on Jan. 7 against John Paul Catholic. Terra Ceia won the first match up, 40-34.

 

Knights 52, Raiders 33

 

Terra Ceia’s defensive effort was the difference in the Knight’s conference victory over Hobgood on Tuesday evening. On the offensive end, Matt Van Staalduinen once again flashed his scoring ability en route to a 24-point performance.

Hobgood threw many different looks at The Knights defensively, switching from 2-3, to 3-2 and even showed some 1-3-1 to try and knock Terra Ceia out of rhythm. But, the Knights never panicked. They did a nice job of extending the Raiders’ zone beyond the perimeter, moving the ball and finding the gaps to knock down open shots.

The offensive glass was kind to the Knights as well. Terra Ceia was able to grab some long rebounds and keep many possessions alive, most of the time it was Gunner Couch running it down. Crouch finished with 12 points and numerous rebounds with a few steals on the evening. Terra Ceia also dominated the Raiders in second-chance points.

Bryson Bunch (6), Alex Van Staalduinen (5), Duncan Edwards (3) and Carson Bowen (2) all scored for the Knights on Tuesday evening.

The offense scored points, but the defense churned the wheels for the Knights. They closed out well on shooters all night, collapsed on players driving the lane and disrupted the passing lanes and ran well in transition.

Head coach Roger Klaassen said he was very pleased with his team’s performance against Hobgood.

“The number one thing on our list to accomplish tonight was our discipline on defense, because we know they’ve got some shooters,” Klaassen said. “A few times we had some lapses, I got on them and they understood. That was a great defensive effort. They switched their face on us quite a bit going into different zones but I just told them to be patient, look for the open man and make the game simple for yourselves. They were very efficient tonight.”

Terra Ceia will have one more game before they take a bit of time off for Christmas break, a home game against Coastal North Carolina HomeSchool on Friday evening.