Royal boys start with 46-43 win

ROYAL CITY - It wasn't pretty, but it was a win, and Royal is 1-0 in high school basketball after a 46-43 victory over Moses Lake Christian last weekend.

"We nearly gave it away at the end," coach Pete Christensen said. "We had 16 turnovers, and most of them were in the third quarter."

The good news was that the Knights had scoring from 10 players, led by the 15 points of Kent Christensen. Danny Vermeer scored seven points, and Brady Dixon and Zach Christensen had four each.

Royal built a 30-18 lead at halftime but cooled to eight points in the third and fourth periods. Coach Christensen said it was a matter of sloppy play by Royal instead of good defense by MLC.

Zach Christensen made both of his field goal attempts, and Danny Vermeer, Kent Christensen and Carter Christensen made one three-point shot each.

Uli Montoya and Neil Leitz triggered much of the scoring with four and five assists respectively. Leitz had five rebounds, and Tanner Whitaker added four. Ricky Ramirez, Montoya and Kent Christensen had two steals each.

The Knights will get an idea this week how well they will compete in the South Central A Conference post-season. They play at Granger on Thursday and host Zillah on Friday.

The Spartans and Leopards finished third and second at state last season and are expected to be state contenders again.