The second game of the night saw the Knights (1-2) and Kennesaw Mountain (1-1) battle back and fourth in what proved to be a hotly contested affair.
With less than 30 seconds remaining in the fourth period, River Ridge guard Nick Masterson, who was the offensive workhorse for the Knights throughout the game, seemed to have put River Ridge ahead for good with a two-point jumper.
It wasn’t meant to be however, as a breakdown in River Ridge’s defense would prove costly.
With less than five seconds remaining, Kennesaw Moutain’s Maceo Inman would receive a pass just inside of the Knights’ three-point line and drove towards the basket.
The River Ridge defenders were slow to react and allowed Inman to throw up an uncontested lay up that rattled through the hoop just as the buzzer sounded.
Though proud of his team’s effort, River Ridge coach Matt Bohon was disappointed that the Knights weren’t able to finish the game.
“We’ve just got to play smarter at the end, play smarter for 32 minutes,” Bohon said. “We played okay for 31 minutes and 55 seconds, but the last five seconds we forgot to guard a guy and they hit a shot.”
Masterson led all scorers with 29 points. He was 5-for-7 from the free-throw line and hit a game-high six 3s.
Also key for the Knights was guard Steven Spears, who lead the team with five assists.
In the night’sopening game, the Lady Knights found themselves well ahead of the Lady Mustangs (0-2) early, and never looked back.
Taking advantage of numerous errant passes by their opponent, the Lady Knights (1-1) jumped out to a 13-3 lead three minutes into the first periods.
For the remainder of the first half, River Ridge kept ahead of Kennesaw by double digits, and entered halftime with a comfortable 34-17 lead.
Though the Lady Mustangs stepped up their defensive effort in the second half, it was not enough to over come what eventually grew to a 21-point deficit.
The victory marks the Lady Knights’ first Class AAAAAA opponent this year, something that coach Jason Taylor was pleased with.
“We entered tonight just focusing on us,” Taylor said. “I didn’t have any film on them or any scouting reports, we just came in did what we wanted to do, which was be patient on the offensive end. I told the team, if we’re patient, we can put more points up on the board, and tonight we were. I’m really happy with the win.”
The Lady Knights saw three players score more than 10 points, with senior guard Jordan Livesay leading the team with 14.
Forward Rachel Psomas finished with 12, while center Jess Mlaska finished with 10.
Both of the Knights’ squads will be in action on Tuesday when they host Kell.
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