GALION — The Northmor Golden Knights boys basketball team welcomed the Highland Fighting Scots to their home floor on Wednesday evening for a clash atop the Knox-Morrow Athletic Conference standings. Both teams would enter the contest at 6-0 in league play and Northmor went in with a perfect season still in tact.
At the end of it all, it would be the hosting Knights coming away with a convincing, 27-point victory, defeating the Scots; 70-43. The win propels Northmor to 11-0 overall and 7-0 while Highland drops to 9-3 on the season and 6-1 in the KMAC.
In a contest that began with a sluggish start on both ends of the floor and a 2-2 score after the first three-plus minutes of action, Knights head coach Zach Ruth appeared unimpressed and proceeded to call a quick timeout. The judgment call by the Northmor leader proved to be effective as the remainder of the quarter was all Knights. The final 4:24 of the opening frame saw Northmor outscoring the visitors by a tally of 12-2 to take a 16-6 lead into quarter number two. The home team’s dominance would carry through to put the Golden Knights up at the half by a score of 31-12.
Highland came out in the third and would appear to have made the necessary adjustments on offense. Unfortunately for the visitors, Northmor came out of the intermission even more fired up than before and would outscore the Scots in the quarter; 25-14. With 2:38 remaining in the third quarter, the Golden Knights had extended their lead all the way to 30 points. The visitors would see many of the the Northmor reserves in the final quarter and would outscore the Knights to the tune of 17-14 but it would be the home team that would prevail.
“These kids just played as a true team tonight,” said Ruth postgame. “Everyone worked hard on both ends of the floor, they were communicating and they were playing inspired team ball.”
Kyle Kegley may have had the game of his career on Wednesday, recording a double-double by halftime (11 points, 12 rebounds) and finished with 20 points and 14 boards to go along with three steals, an assist and three blocks.
Also in double figures for the undefeated home squad were Meechie Johnson, Brock Pletcher and Blake Miller. Meechie finished the contest with 18 points as well as two rebounds, two steals and four assists, including an off-the-backboard alley-oop to Pletcher for a flush that ignited both sides of the gymnasium. Pletcher finished with a dozen points, two assists and a steal and Miller also had 12 points, a rebound, two assists, three steals and a block. Miller drew the defensive assignment of guarding Highland’s top-scorer, Mack Anglin. Miller and the Northmor defense held Anglin to just nine points on 3/9 shooting.
Chris Branham led the Scots in scoring on the evening with 10 points.
Other stats for Northmor Wednesday were: Team- 30/56 total field goals, 28/43 from the interior, 2/13 from the perimeter, 8/11 from the free-throw line, 24 total rebounds (11O, 13D), 9 assists, 19 steals, 8 blocks and 8 turnovers; Tyler Kegley- 6 points, 6 rebounds, 2 steals, 4 blocks; Lane Bachelder- 2 points, 2 steals and Eason Neal- 1 rebound.
Team stats for Highland were: 17/37 total field goals, 16/27 from the interior, 1/10 from the perimeter, 8/9 from the free-throw line, 24 total rebounds (8O, 16D), 4 assists, 8 steals, 2 blocks and 21 turnovers.
The Golden Knights will continue their potential perfect season march on Tuesday, January 16 when they travel to Fredericktown for a KMAC meeting with the Freddies. On Friday, January 19, Northmor will host another KMAC foe in the likes of the visiting Danville Blue Devils.
