Kiona-Benton at Royal High tonight for key boys clash

ROYAL CITY - Royal and Kiona-Benton will have a South Central A Conference boys basketball clash tonight at Royal that has taken on great importance after the events of last Saturday.

Wahluke's stunning upset of the Knights on Saturday dropped Royal to 6-3 and back into a tie with Mabton for second place. The Knights had won five SCAC East contests in a row to move into second alone.

Royal is still in good position for the district tournament with three games to go, but other contenders are nipping at the Knights' heels. They can still be overtaken by Mabton, Burbank and River View in the race for three tickets to district.

"The games we must win are River and Burbank (this weekend), coach Pete Christensen.

The Knights should be able to accomplish that. They defeated both teams earlier on the road. These two games will be at Royal.

Even league-leading Ki-Be is within reach, as demonstrated by struggling Connell. The lowly Eagles upset the Bears, 32-29, last Saturday, dropping them to 8-1.

"I still fully believe we can beat anybody in this league," Christensen said.

The Knights go into tonight's contest on a downer. Their five-game SCAC winning streak was ended by the Warriors, 59-58.

"Wahluke was unbelievably hot," Christensen said. "You have to give them a lot of credit."

Overall, the week was good to the Knights. They won two SCAC contests to move into second place for the first time in years. They stopped Mabton, 66-58, and Connell, 54-39.

ROYAL 66,

MABTON 58

Royal built a 38-27 lead at half-time and hung on at the end. A 17-10 Mabton third period closed the gap, but the Knights re-asserted themselves with an 18-14 fourth quarter.

The Knights cashed in their height advantage. The 6-3 Kent Christensen scored 19 points, and 6-6 Neil Leitz had 14. Reed Lefler and Danny Vermeer, two boys who top 6-0, scored 11 points each.

Kent Christensen also led in rebounds with 10, and he passed out six assists.

ROYAL 54,

CONNELL 39

Royal broke away, 18-9, after one period and led, 44-22 after three quarters. Connell rallied in the fourth period, but its mountain was to tall to climb.

Kent Christensen was the leader again with 16 points and seven rebounds. Frank Leitz added 10 points. Brady Dixon, Uli Montoya, and the Leitz brothers had three steals each.