Vancouver Knights (3-4) vs Nevada Desert Dogs (2-5)
Richmond Oval - The Vancouver Knights began their season back on January 5th and started their season on the road with a four game road trip. Since then, the Knights have returned to Vancouver and are in the middle of a seven-game home stretch. Entering Monday night’s game, the Knights held a 3-4 record, and a loss coming the night before in the first of a back-to-back match up with the Nevada Desert Dogs.
Looking to avoid another loss, the Knights came out playing inspired basketball opening the game with a score of 15-2. Vancouver local, Demitri Harris, earned the start this game and would knock down a pair of triples early on to help the Knights get off to a great start. After one quarter the Knights led 27-17.
In the second quarter, the Knights were steady and behind scoring contributions of six players, managed a 55-46 lead heading into the locker rooms. The visiting Desert Dogs chipped away at the leading in the third quarter getting as close as two point, but entering the final frame the Knights still held the lead 80-75.
In the fourth quarter the Knights went on a run to extend their lead to 12 at one point, behind the strong play of Darius Paul and Vance Cooksey. Cooksey would erupt in the fourth for 16 points using a number of aggressive drives to earn himself multiple trips to the freethrow line. The Desert Dogs would climb their way back to a single digit deficit with a couple of minutes remaining, however their coach, unhappy with the refereeing, would pick up a technical foul and be ejected. The Knights would hit their freethrows to close out the game 111-105.
After the game, Vancouver Knights Coach, Jerome Brown left Vancouver Basketball with these comments:
“It was a start to finish game, everyone had to work hard to get this win even though we had a big lead at the start of the game. We got clutch shots when we needed them. We are happy to split the series at home, but still got a lot to work on heading into 3 game home stand next weekend.”
Leading Scorers for the Knights:
Darius Paul 27 PTS 12 REB
Vance Cooksey 24 PTS 5 AST
Demitri Harris 13 PTS
The Vancouver Knights have a tough schedule ahead this weekend as they will play three games in a row at The Richmond Olympic Oval this weekend starting against the Kansas City Tornados on Saturday night at 7:00pm. The Tornados roster features ex-NBA guard Kareem Rush who spent 8 years in the NBA playing the majority of his games with the Los Angeles Lakers from 2002-2005.
COMMUNITY
