Knoch clamps down, takes off in win over Highlands

By: HSSN Staff
Tuesday, January 8, 2019 | 11:03 PM

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Long a program built around stifling defense, Knoch this season is showing the offense to match. And the Knights are proving how dangerous they can be when both work in tandem.

Physical defense against Highlands’ top two scorers and a career offensive night from junior Scott Fraser spurred Knoch to its seventh consecutive victory, a 74-59 road win over Class 4A No. 4 Highlands in a Section 1-4A game Tuesday night.

“Our chemistry is growing, and our confidence is growing through all the wins we have in a row,” said Fraser, who scored a career-high 33 points. “We’re just kind of feeling it right now.”

Knoch (9-3, 3-0) certainly felt it Tuesday. The Knights hit 10 3-pointers, including four by Fraser and three by senior Julian Sanks, who finished with 11 points, to reach 70 points for the fifth consecutive game. They also became just the second team this season to hold high-scoring Highlands (6-4, 2-1) to fewer than 60 points.

Fraser and Jared Schrecongost led a physical defense that keyed on Highlands star juniors Luke Cochran and Johnny Crise, denying them open looks and easy drives.

Cochran, who scored 104 points in Highlands’ three previous games before Tuesday, had 11 against Knoch; Crise led the Golden Rams with 19, working hard to get them.

“They’re scary,” Knoch coach Ron McNabb said. “Luke’s putting up 44 the other day (against Serra Catholic), and Johnny’s just a freak athlete. And they’re both good players. They’ve been giving me bad nights, believe me, because they’re so good, but I thought Scotty and Schrec were phenomenal against them. They made them work. I think our guys did a really good job defensively.”

Knoch didn’t trail after the first quarter and led by as many as 17 points in the second half, and the Knights responded to Highlands’ biggest run of the game in the third quarter.

Highlands didn’t have an answer of its own.

“They punched us in the mouth, and we never responded,” Highlands coach Tyler Stoczynski said. “It’s a learning process. Hopefully we can get back to the drawing board on Wednesday or Thursday and just use this as a tool to learn.”

After a close first quarter ended with Knoch holding an 18-15 lead, the Knights took control with a 9-0 run early in the second quarter to push their lead to double digits. Seven 3-pointers helped Knoch take a 36-25 lead into halftime.

“All summer we worked on that, all of us just shooting, shooting, shooting,” said Fraser, who scored 16 points in the first half. “It’s something we excel at.”

Highlands trailed by 17 points early in the third quarter, but the Golden Rams began to rally: An 8-0 run, punctuated by a Crise dunk on an alley-oop and a Cochran three-point play, helped them trim Knoch’s lead to 49-43 with under two minutes remaining in the quarter.

But Knoch took the energy out of the gym by extending its lead back out to double digits, getting a pair of baskets after offensive rebounds.

“I looked at my guys, and I didn’t see any panic in their eyes,” McNabb said. “I didn’t see freaking out in their eyes. They were very calm and under control, and I didn’t really have to burn a timeout because I thought we would be OK.”

Highlands never seriously threatened again as Knoch shot 12 of 16 from the free-throw line in the final quarter, including 9 of 10 by Ryan Lang, who finished with 14 points.

Sophomore Mason Swanger gave Highlands 12 points off the bench, hitting four 3-pointers.

“We didn’t respond together as a team,” Stoczynski said. “When things get tough, you have to come closer together, and I just didn’t think we played together very well tonight. You’re never going to beat a well-coached team like Knoch when you do that.”

Knoch beat Highlands for the first time since the 2014-15 season, ended the Golden Rams’ 15-game home winning streak and took sole possession of first place in the section heading into Friday’s game at Derry.

“It’s not a fun place to play,” McNabb said. “Anytime you can come in here and do something like that against a team that is coached by Tyler, you’re doing something right. He’s really good, and we’re just fortunate to get out of here with a win.”

Doug Gulasy is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Doug at dgulasy@tribweb.com or via Twitter @dgulasy_Trib.

Tags: Highlands, Knoch