The West Central Area Knights boys basketball team went on the road and played a gritty game with a lot of poise to defeat the No. 15 state ranked Sauk Centre Mainstreeters, 56-50
"So proud of our team", said Knights coach Kraig Hunter. "Sauk Centre is a tough team to defend with seven different three-point shooters and an all-state player in Jay Nuebert but our guys executed our defensive game plan so well."
Assistant coach Jon Nelson said, "A game plan is only good if it's executed and the boys did that."
WCA set the tone early taking a 20-15 lead. The Mainstreeters made a 10-3 run to take a 25-23 lead. The Knights ended the half 6-0 on Bryce Kjesbo and Mitch Dewey three-pointers to lead 29-25 at the break.
Hunter said, "That's what you like to see when playing a good team on the road and our guys just kept responding and kept their poise. Especially in the second half, when it happened again. When they took their first lead of the second half, you could see it in our guys, that they weren't backing down."
Kjesbo and Dewey struck again to start the second half with a two and a three to put the Knights up 34-25. Sauk Centre then went on a 14-4 run to take a 39-38 lead. Kjesbo struck right back with another three to give the visitors a 41-39 lead that they would never relinquish. WCA could never relax as the Mainstreeters kept clawing back with threes of their own to cut it to two points several times. Cole Anderson made four of four free throws in the last seconds to give them the final six point margin.
Hunter concluded, "As usual in games like this, you need everyone and indeed all of our guys made some big plays. Jacob Strunk was just phenomenal playing defense on Nuebert, he led us in rebounding and he gets steals at crucial times. Nas Dotts hit some timely shots along with Kjesbo and Dewey. We also got some good defensive minutes from Ben Bye, Roman Mihailovschi, Sam Hanson and Isaac Kreft."
WCA hit 18-44 from the field for 41% and 7-20 threes. They also converted 13-17 free throws for 77%. Sauk Centre was held to 16-50 for only 32% from the stingy Knights defense. They made 9-24 threes and 9-14 free throws for 64%. The Knights outrebounded the Streeters 35-24.
WCA was led by Kjesbo and Anderson each with 12 points and Dewey nine. Strunk had nine rebounds, Bye eight and Kjesbo six.
Leading scorers for Sauk Centre were Jay Nuebert 16 and Andrew Drevlow 10
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