Knights use strong first half to beat Border West

Sam Peterson
Grant County Herald

West Central Area and Border West clashed in the second round of the Section 6A – South playoffs at Minnewaska High School March 9. As the top seed, the Knights were able to use a big first half to put away the fifth seeded Bucs 71-45 to advance to the subsection finals.

These two teams had just met in the regular season finale in Wheaton. The Bucs were ready to play and gave the Knights a real test, but WCA still managed a 69-57 win over Border West on March 1. “Border West has been playing really good basketball lately and we didn’t play that well vs them last Friday. We gave the kids a challenge on things we needed to do better today and they were really dialed in on the game plan and executed it well,” Knights coach Kraig Hunter said. 

Just over a week later, the two teams met in the Section 6A – South playoffs. This time, the Knights jumped all over the Bucs in the first half. The Knights played well on both ends of the floor and had a 42-18 lead at the halftime break. 

The Bucs were much more competitive in the second half, but the gap was simply too big to overcome. In the final 18 minutes, WCA only outscored the Bucs 29-27, but still managed to secure the 26-point win.

“We contained dribble penetration much better today as a team, contested 3-point shooters better and most of all our rebounding effort was solid today.  Border West is always a scrappy, physical team and today we outrebounded them 39-25. Our hustle plays sparked us several times on runs,” coach Hunter said.

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