King's pulls off comeback in overtime against White River, 3 takeaways
KENT, Wash. — An early lead over White River quickly evaporated for King's, but the Knights were able to wipe away a 12-point deficit in the second half to outlast the Hornets, 52-49 in overtime.
Trailing 9-2 in the first quarter, the Hornets' offense couldn't seem to buy a bucket, but a 10-2 run to end the frame gave White River a slim 12-11 lead after eight minutes.
After trading baskets for much of the second quarter, the Hornets found a bit of a run to close out the first half with a 30-24 lead.
The Hornets built their lead up to double digits in the third quarter, but the Knights answered with a fiery comeback bid to erase the deficit and eventually retake the lead in the fourth quarter.
That strong fourth quarter by the Knights forced overtime where they outlasted the Hornets to walk away with the win.
Here are three takeaways from the White River-King's game:
FAST START FROM KING'S QUICKLY ERASED
It didn't take long for the Knights to get going as they jumped out to a quick 9-2 lead in the first quarter, but the Hornets answered with a run and ended the quarter and first half with the lead.
With a young team in tow this year, getting the ball to the right people is huge, King's coach Dan Taylor said.
"(White River coach Chris Gibson) is a hall of fame coach and he's going to have us scouted and know exactly what to do," Taylor said. "I just had to settle our girls down and we had to get it to the right people because our stars weren't getting shots."
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KNIGHTS WITH A FOURTH-QUARTER RALLY
Down by 10 heading into the final quarter, King's was able to find what had worked so well early in the game offensively.
On the other end of the floor, the Knights were also completely turning away anything the White River offense was trying to do.
"I told our girls that these girls are not going to give you a game, you have to take it," Taylor said. "We just had to figure out how to get the ball to our top scorers. Once we got them more touches and looks, got inside more and drew fouls, that helped us a lot."
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ANOTHER CHAPTER IN THE KING'S NON-LEAGUE GAUNTLET
The Knights came into Monday's contest with nine losses, all coming to to non-league teams in larger classifications.
King's finally found itself on the right side of the scoreboard against a bigger school and Taylor said he thinks the kind of non-league schedule they put together will only help the team in the playoffs.
"In the long run it'll help us build our confidence," he said. "I know we can go into the state tournament with a losing record which I'm OK with because once you get there it's 0-0."
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Photo by Vince Miller
Photo by Vince Miller
Photo by Vince Miller
