The Knoxville Girls Basketball Squad broke open a close game in the second quarter to win by a comfortable margin over PCM Tuesday night 60-37 in the Panthers’ season opener. Knoxville held a four point lead after one quarter and proceeded to outscore the Mustangs 20-8 in the second to lead 37-21 at halftime. The Panthers held PCM to just 35% from the field and forced eight first half turnovers. Panthers Coach Jim Uitermarkt told KRLS Sports the defense was getting stops to allow the offense to get easy baskets and expand on the lead.

“I told the girls at halftime, the defense was driving everything for us and I love that we kept them under 40 points tonight and we had a couple of single digit quarters.”

PCM Coach Jeff Lindsay said his girls were caught out of position several times and that lead to easy baskets for Knoxville.

“We would not be in an athletic position to be able to stop any other direction once they picked the dribble up whether it was a eurostep. They did try to step further around and, we needed to do better in our defensive stance in that manner.”

Knoxville was led by Katie Keitges with 29 points while Maggie Wilkins contributed 20. For PCM, Regan Freland was the only player in double figures with 20 points. Knoxville is 1-0 and will travel to Van Meter next Tuesday, while PCM will head to Saydel December 6th.