Knoch girls basketball team again leans on defense in win over Kiski Area

By: Michael Love
Wednesday, December 29, 2021 | 8:41 PM

Nina Shaw loves to put the ball in the hoop.

But the junior guard also gets excited when she and her Knoch teammates are able to play strong defense.

That was on display again Wednesday evening against Kiski Area at the Kiski Area Holiday Classic.

For the second time in as many games, the Knights limited their opponent to 17 points. Offensively, Knoch got a game-best 22 points from senior Madilyn Boyer and 10 more from Shaw in a 50-17 victory over the host Cavaliers.

“Coach (Chris Andreassi) always says to come out with intensity, and we try to come out and set the tempo and not let the other team get anything going,” Shaw said.

“It helps us build on it throughout the game. That’s what we did against Kiski.”

Knoch took control early. Boyer hit a pair of free throws a minute into the game, and Shaw drained a 3-pointer 30 seconds later. Boyer scored 10 points in the first quarter.

“Defense is a big segment of every one of our practices, and the girls take pride in that,” Andreassi said. “After the game, the first comment anyone made was, ‘Coach, we played good defense.’ It was important because, offensively, we were a little sluggish at first. We were a little stagnant. The ball wasn’t moving.

“Kiski has a very active zone. We need to play a little better against the zone. As the game went on, we started moving the ball better, and we started getting better looks.”

Kiski Area went 0 for 8 from the field in the first quarter and committed seven turnovers. The Knights took advantage and led 13-0 after the first eight minutes.

“Early in the first quarter, I thought we had some decent looks. We just couldn’t get them to fall,” Kiski Area coach Nick Dizon said. “We knew what we were going up against. Knoch is a tough and very disciplined team. We knew we had to try different things to slow them down. We thought we had the game in striking distance early, but we just weren’t doing enough in other areas. When you are playing against a team like that, you have to be sharp in all areas.”

Rikiya Garcia hit a jumper for the Cavaliers early in the second, and Lexi Colaianni added a 3-pointer to draw Kiski Area to within 13-5, but the Knights used a 12-2 run over the final six minutes to essentially put the game away at the break.

Hattie McGraw hit a pair of 3-pointers in the second half and finished with eight points for Knoch, which improved to 5-2.

Sophomore Abbie Johns had a team-best six points for Kiski Area, which fell to 3-4.

Knoch defeated Ligonier Valley, 68-17, on Tuesday, and the Knights will wrap up tournament play Thursday against Yough.

Kiski Area, which defeated Yough, 50-31, in its first tournament game Tuesday, will look to bounce back Thursday against Ligonier Valley.

Michael Love is a TribLive reporter covering sports in the Alle-Kiski Valley and the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh. A Clearfield native and a graduate of Westminster (Pa.), he joined the Trib in 2002 after spending five years at the Clearfield Progress. He can be reached at mlove@triblive.com.

Tags: Kiski Area, Knoch