The Knoxville Boys Basketball Squad needed an extra four minutes to win its sixth straight game in a 72-69 victory over Bondurant-Farrar, while the girls suffered their first loss of the season falling behind early in a 56-49 set back heard live on 95.3 KNIA. The boys raced out to a 28-11 lead midway through the second quarter, only to have the Bluejays narrow the lead to six before the Panthers settled for a seven point halftime lead. Bondurant would come out firing from three point land and driving to the basket to take the lead into the fourth quarter by one 52-51. The lead would trade hands four times in the fourth quarter before Kieren Nichols tied it at 65 near the end of regulation
Knoxville would get the upper hand early in the extra session, but the Bluejays would retake the lead, however Nichols again came through with his 41st point, which was a career high.
That basket tied the single game school record held by Brad Davis set back in 1998. Knoxville’s Luke Keitges would step to the line and sank two free throws to force Bondurant-Farrar to jack up a three at the end of overtime to preserve the win. Coach Jeff Larson told KRLS Sports Nichols and Keitges were the keys to pulling off the win.
Larson:
“When he gets on a roll there’s no stopping him, and he pulled us through that one, in that time he pulled us through. Then Luke Keitges at the end of the game, a freshman that doesn’t play a ton a minutes and he stepped to the line and knocked them down, he’s been struggling shooting from the field, and we tell him to keep shooting, he stepped to the line and made two free throws and won the game for us.”
Knoxville is now 6-1 on the season. The girls fell behind in the second quarter by 19 points, but rallied to get within six in the fourth quarter, however, Bondurant-Farrar made free throws and key shots down the stretch to give the Panthers their first loss of the season 56-49. Coach Jim Uitermarkt told KRLS Sports the Bluejays defense frustrated his team.
Uitermarkt:
“Trapped some of our kids pretty hard, and we didn’t handle that very well, and in the first half we only got two points from kids other than Katie and Maggie. But on the other side of that, I was really proud of our kids when they got down 16 when they were really on a run kids didn’t quit and they narrowed that lead down before half.”
Both Katie Keitges and Maggie Wilkins scored 19 points to lead Knoxville. The Panthers fall to 7-1 on the season and both boys and girls will head to Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines today to take on Newton which you can hear on 95.3 KNIA.