Royal Boys remain unbeaten in league play
Bob Kirkpatrick/The Sun Tribune - Sawyer Jenks (11) lays one off the glass for a bucket against the Panthers on the Knights home court Friday.
ROYAL CITY — The Royal Knights (13-2, 9-0) rolled over both of their weekend opponents on the hardwood, beating River View 60-37 at home Friday, and cruising past Columbia-Burbank 64-40 on the road Saturday.
The back-to-back victories made it 10 consecutive wins for Royal, which preserved the teams’ unblemished record in SCAC East Conference play and gives the Knights a firm hold on first place in the league standings.
“The boys stepped up and played tough defense this week,” coach Ray Valle said. “It’s nice to see different guys step up each game whether it’s defensively or offensively.”
Royal 60
River View 37
Royal dominated early leading 19-9 at the end of the first quarter. The Panthers made a game of it posting 13 in the second 8 minutes of the contest to narrow the gap to 31-22 at the break. But it was all Knights after that as the home team outscored River View 29-15. Isaac Ellis led the Royal attack with 17 points. Owen Ellis added 12.
Royal 64
Columbia 40
The game at Burbank was a bit more competitive to start with that is as the Coyotes trailed 17-15 after the first quarter was in the books. But the Knights turned on the afterburners in the second quarter to take a 35-21 lead into the locker room at intermission. The stingy Royal defense held Columbia-Burbank to just 19 second half points.
Owen Ellis knocked down a game-high 20 points for the Knights. Isaac Ellis finished with 14.
With just five games left in regular season play, Royal needs to pickup three wins to nail down first place and the No. 1 seed to districts. The Knights matched up against Warden in Royal City Tuesday, but the results were not available at press time.