PREP BOYS BASKETBALL: COLUMBIA-BURBANK 42, ROYAL 32

Columbia-Burbank 42

ROYAL 32

BURBANK - A recent surge of solid play by the Royal Knights came to an end Saturday night.

A 12-3 first quarter was more than enough for host Columbia-Burbank to hold on for an ugly 42-32 South Central Athletic Conference (SCAC) East win.

Royal (6-7. 3-3) played solid defense to keep itself in a position to challenge for the win but their offense let them down.

Our defense was on it's 'A' game tonight," Royal head coach Pete Christensen said. "We held them to within our goal of points against. Other than that, not much went right for us.  Without harping on all the negative I will just say, we aren't going to win many games shooting 16 percent for the game no matter how many shots we get off."

Royal was led by the eight points apiece by Danny Vermeer and Neil Leitz.

"It never crossed my mind that all of our shooters would go flat at the same time for an entire game," Christensen said. "I guess on one hand it was amazing to watch - in disbelief."

On Friday the Knights escaped with a 37-36 overtime win over River View.

"It was not a pretty game, but it was a valuable win for us," Christensen said.

Vermeer scored 10 points to lead Royal.

"This is our third overtime game this year," Christensen said. "This is really helping the kids learn how to stay focused and win. We are  young and experiencing these type of wins is a huge plus."