Long time coming: Knoch wins win 1st section title in 50 years

By: Michael Love
Saturday, February 5, 2022 | 8:36 PM

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A 50-year section-championship drought came to an end Saturday afternoon as the Knoch girls basketball team held off a furious fight from Highlands to capture the Section 1-4A crown with a 56-48 victory in front of a large and spirited home crowd.

“The girls have played a couple of playoff games with a big crowd and a lot of energy, but I think this was probably the biggest crowd they’ve gotten at home,” said Knoch coach Chris Andreassi, who saw his team outscore the Golden Rams 10-2 over the final 3 minutes, 48 seconds of regulation.

“They really fed off that energy.”

Knoch’s last section title came in 1972 when it was a part of the Western Pennsylvania Girls Athletic League before joining the WPIAL for the 1973-74 school year.

The Knights (17-2, 11-0) have won 14 straight games since a loss to Mars on Dec. 22. They completed the season sweep of Highlands, having already defeated the Golden Rams (16-3, 8-2) on Dec. 10.

“You have to give it to Highlands,” Andreassi said. “(Coach) Jason (Kerr) is doing a great job with that group. They’re getting better all the time. He had a great defensive gameplan. He stifled us for a long time.”

The Knights will try to make it a perfect section slate as they visit rival Freeport (5-8, 4-4) on Thursday. They extended their section winning streak to 18 games dating back to the start of last season.

Knoch went 7-0 in the section last year. But with the section standings in such an unbalanced fashion because of covid cancellations and interruptions, the WPIAL didn’t award a section championship to the Knights.

A “2022” that will be placed on the section-championship banner in the gym means a lot to MacKenzie McGraw, one of three seniors on the team along with Maddie Boyer and Lily Hawk.

“This is the best feeling ever,” McGraw said. “We’ve all worked so hard for this. It is great to see it finally come true.”

Boyer, who came into the game leading the team in scoring at 15.2 points a game, was limited to six points.

But junior guards Nina Shaw and Hattie McGraw anchored the scoring.

Shaw finished with a team-best 15 points. All but two came from the foul line, and she was a perfect 10 for 10 in the fourth quarter. She ended the game 13 of 14 from the charity stripe.

“In practice, we always work on end-of-the-game situations,” said Shaw, who hit eight of her 10 fourth-quarter free throws in the final three minutes.

“The whole team was ready in the final minutes. I was really confident in my foul shooting. They were in the double bonus, and when we needed a quick two (points), I wanted to be the one they could count on. I wanted to make plays, whether it was going to the basket or on the line, and I was able to do that.

“We wanted this (section title) last year, too, so there was more of a push to get it this year. Now that we have it, we’re not going to settle. We’re going to keep working.”

Andreassi said Shaw was clutch in the final minutes, like he expected her to be.

“I have a rule,” he said. “If we’re up four with 3 minutes left, it’s Nina time. And having Maddie back there with her, that’s a pretty good duo. We hit the 3-minute mark, and we had the four-point lead. We knew it was time. Nina, on the sideline, was begging, ‘You’ve got to give me the ball because they’ll foul me, and I’ll make them.’ And she did.”

Hattie McGraw connected on four 3-pointers – one in each quarter – and finished with 14 points

“We knew we had to stay calm down the stretch and trust each other,” she said. “We all made some big plays to keep the lead, especially with Nina hitting her foul shots.”

Knoch’s largest lead of the game – 23-11 at the 4:09 mark of the second quarter – came thanks to a 14-3 run. Highlands answered with an 8-0 run to close the gap to four.

Junior Ava Nitkowski, who came off the bench to score five points in the second quarter for Highlands, hit a 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer. But Knoch led by five at the break.

Highlands led twice in the second half – at 31-30 midway through the third and 40-38 with 6:57 left in the fourth – but Knoch answered both times.

Sophomore Jocelyn Bielak fronted the Golden Rams with 15 points, and senior Maria Fabregas added 10.

Highlands will look to bounce back Monday when it hosts Freeport on senior night.

“Of course, we’re disappointed, but the girls really grew up today, and they’ve also learned a lot along the way, too,” Kerr said. “They were aggressive, and they battled with the willingness to fight through the whole 32 minutes. We were on the ropes at times, but once they got their feet on the ground, they kept chipping away. We had the lead a couple of times and tried to keep the momentum and extend it. We needed to stack some baskets, but we just weren’t able to do that enough. But I am extremely proud of the girls, and we’re excited to keep going.”

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: Highlands, Knoch