Knights roll past Rams 91-66

Basketball players shoot a basket during a game.
Freshman Forward, Edwin SamMbaka leaps into the air tipping a pass in off the rim to put the Knights up 48-32 two minutes into the second period Daniel Henrick, Sports Editor

The Knights continued a five game home stand with a victory over the Rams from Springfield Technical Community College on Tuesday Jan 26 by a score of 91-66 at the Northern Essex fitness center. The win improves the Knight’s record to (20-1) and the Rams fell to (4-13).

This first meeting between the Knights and Rams on Dec 2, 2022, had featured an uncharacteristically poor offensive performance by the Knights shooting 30% inside field goal range and 20% from 3 point range.  In addition, the knights had scored a season low 27 points in their first half of that game.

“We’re going to try to run, we’re going to put a little more pressure on them going up and down the court to the type of style we want to play. We’re going with a quicker line up and we’re going to try to attack the rim much more and try to speed up the game a little bit more,” said head coach Darren Stratton regarding scheme adjustments to prevent another sluggish offensive start in this rematch.

These adjustments worked.

After a 2-2 tie, forward Edwin SamMbaka of Lawrence shot a two-pointer putting the Knights up 4-2 one minute into the rematch and the Knights never trailed or tied again. Overall, the Knights shot a much-improved offense in the rematch shooting 53% from field goal range and 50% from three-point land.

The score was 41-29 at halftime.

When the second period game clock hit zero the Knights were victorious by a final score of 91-66.

The win pushed the Knights win streak to 16 and remain undefeated in conference play.

The Knights were scheduled to be back in action for the third game of their five-game home stand Saturday, Jan 28, against Quinsigamond Community College at the fitness center.

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