Royal boys assert their power in 73-45 victory

ROYAL CITY - The Royal High School boys basketball team may have turned a corner in a 73-45 victory at Kittitas on Dec. 20.

The Knights took advantage of their height for the first time this year to apply a crushing blow in the third quarter, 19-5. They had led, 38-27, at half-time.

"We rebounded well and shot most of our shots inside the key," coach Pete Christensen said.

The victory brought the team's record to 3-4. The next action will come on Jan. 6 against Mabton here and Jan. 7 at Connell.

"We look forward to the Christmas break, when we will have some extra time to fine tune some things before the league run starts," Christensen said.

Things like long range shooting. While the Knights hit 45 percent of their shots overall, they made only 20 percent from beyond the three-point arc. They took 10 shots and missed eight.

The Knights also need to improve ball control. They turned it over 22 times. They did offset that mark with nine steals and eight assists.

"Things finally went our way in a lot of categories," Christensen said. "We were able to work on a few of our press options."

The Knights got scoring from 12 players, led by the 13, 12 and 10 points respectively of Danny Vermeer, Reed Lefler and Kent Christensen. Christensen led with seven rebounds. Frank Leitz had six, Lefler five and Neil Leitz four.

Frank Leitz had a hot night under the basket, hitting all three of his attempts. Dixon had four steals, and Vermeer had two assists. Lefler made all four of his free throw attempts, and the team shot 77 percent from the line.

Others to score for the Knights were: Neil Leitz, 8; Ricky Ramirez, 7; Abel Castellon, 6; Frank Leitz, 6; Isaac Bruno, 3; Dixon, 2; Uli Montoya, 2; Tanner Whitaker, 2; and Carter Christensen 2.