By Wyatt Dojutrek, sports editor
The Knights varsity girls’ basketball team started off the new year off right, with a 45-36 win against the Wheeling Wildcats on Jan 6.
Junior Emily Frasco helped guide the team with 10 points and two assists, while sophomore Mandy Withey added 13 rebounds and scored 6 points as well.
With the victory, the Knights move to 7-8 and 2-2 in the conference.
According to head coach Gabrielle Lovin, she believes that Frasco and Withey and senior Ashley Adams were big reasons for the team’s success in the game.
“Those two [Frasco and Withey] played really, really well,” Lovin said. “Ashley did a really great job covering their best player.”
Frasco and Withey got off to a hot start, scoring 6 of the first 8 points for the Knights to get an 8-2 lead early in the first quarter.
Frasco believes that the defense played an important role in the first quarter, holding the Wildcats to only 10 points.
While Frasco and Withey were key parts for the Knights win, Lovin believes that everyone on the team did their part in helping defeat the Wildcats.
“I don’t think we really had a shining star tonight,” Lovin said. “I know that Mandy and Emily played well, but I think that we had opportunities for other players to step up.”
One of those players was senior Eileen Donohue, who was a perfect 3-3 from the floor, including a three pointer midway into the second quarter.
The team capitalized on multiple missed field goals by Wheeling in the second quarter, outscoring the Wildcats 14-5.
Even after a good second quarter, Lovin thought the team had many small changes to make heading into the half.
“I thought that we had a really first good half,” Lovin said. “I think we just needed to clean up the unnecessary turnovers.”
The Knights did clean up the turnovers, only committing three in the final two quarters.
The team also continued to extend their lead as they played on in the final 12 minutes in the game, never leading by less than seven points.
The Knights defense allowed Wheeling to only shoot 29 percent from the floor and eight percent from beyond the three point line.
Even though Lovin was happy about how the team’s defense played, she thinks it is something that the team needs to work on going forward.
“We need to communicate better as on team, especially on help defense,” Lovin said. “Basically working as a single defensive unit.”