By Jack Mathews
Executive Sports Editor
Before Friday night only one player on the Knights, senior Mike LaTulip, had experienced starting a conference game.  No one on the roster, however, has ever experienced a loss at home against an MSL East opponent.
Fortunately for the Knights that would continue as the Knights beat Elk Grove in both teams first conference game of the year 73 to 42.
The Knights got off to a hot start, outscoring Elk Grove 23-7 until late in the first quarter despite senior starting forwards Kevin Somogyi and Dreese Black getting into foul trouble early. Junior forward Mike Houghton came off the bench to fill in and grabbed 10 rebounds while scoring 7 points.
Elk Grove would fight back in the second quarter though, keeping the Knights from scoring until just under 2 minutes left in the quarter and bringing the game within 3 points.
“The shots we were getting [in the beginning of the second quarter] we felt good about,” head coach John Camardella said.  “We missed a couple of layups and [Elk Grove] was just hitting their shots.”
The Knights would finish off the half with an 8-0 run though and bring that momentum into the second half by not letting Elk Grove make a field goal until a minute and a half left of the third.
“It was important for us to come out and set a defensive tone in the second half as we did in the first quarter and our guys did that and we were happy with the result,” Camardella said.
LaTulip led the Knights in scoring with 21 points while shooting 50% from three pointers (5-10) and having 6 assists.
“We know we can win these games and we can’t have mental lapses,” LaTulip said.  “We did a great job coming out, there was a big crowd, and for some of these guys it was their first real varsity game and I thought they handled it great.”