The Knoxville Girls Basketball Squad wanted to make a statement on Wednesday night in the first round of the class 4A regional, and the statement was defense was again the name of the game as the Panthers handled Des Moines Hoover 74-28 heard on 95.3 KNIA. After a slow start offensively, the Panthers kicked it into high gear in the second quarter to hold a 35-11 halftime lead and put it on cruise control to get running clock in the third quarter. Coach Jim Uitermarkt told KRLS Sports it was just a matter of making Hoover uncomfortable on offense.

Uitermarkt:
“Their ball handling was a little but shaky, and so we knew that we wanted to make them uncomfortable when they had the ball, and that was straight across the board and we could play everyone defensively we wanted to get up and get in their shorts. They had great size but they had trouble getting the ball up because of the ball pressure we were putting on.”

Katie Keitges scored 33 points to lead Knoxville who for just the second time in team history in the five-on-five era won its 20th game and are now 20-2 on the season with a trip to #8 Gilbert on Saturday in the regional semi-final.