Knights repel improving Rebels

The Evans boys basketball team is shooting its way into rarefied air with coach Kevin Kenny.

The Knights held off a stubborn Strom Thurmond team, 56-51 on Saturday night, to improve to 15-3 - their best start in Kenny's 10 seasons.

"It has surpassed my expectation," Kenny said. "I knew we'd play good basketball, but I never thought we'd be this after 18 games. Credit our kids for working hard and playing tough basketball."

Saturday's game provided a rare occurrence - both sides were pleased with the result. Strom Thurmond fell to 2-11 but was happy with the effort on the road.

"We looked real good," Strom Thurmond coach Bo Rouse said. "Couple of breaks here and there that didn't go our way or maybe we could have won this thing."

Trailing 47-36 with 3:30 to play, the Rebels roared back. A Coco Hillary 3-pointer closed the deficit to 51-48 with 15.6 seconds left.

"That's one of the best 2-11 teams we'll ever see," Kenny said. "They were hurt getting their players late from winning a championship in football and all those all-star games. I believe they will be a tough team in South Carolina come playoff time."

Strom Thurmond also started the game with a flurry, building an 8-3 lead and leading for all but the final 4 minutes of the first half.

"They've made a big improvement since the first time we played them," Evans center Matt Clark said. "They've got their football players back now and they're starting to play like basketball players. Real tough. Real fast. Real aggressive team."

Evans swiped the game from the Rebels with its own run to close the first half. Trailing 18-16, the Knights finished the second quarter perfect from the floor. Evans sank all of its field goal tries, including three 3-point shots, and put in a 4-for-5 effort at the free throw line.

"We started slow with a tough last-second loss on the road last night at Statesboro but we kicked it in late in the first half," Kenny said. "I was happy with the way we were able to shake off that loss."

It was a familiar collapse for the Rebels.

"We always have one quarter we don't play well," Rouse said. "Every game. But we're playing like we need to be with region play beginning next Tuesday. We don't have our legs. We need to be a little bit better."

The 6-foot-8 Clark used a sizable height advantage to keep the home team ahead in the second half. He scored eight of his 11 points after halftime.

Glenn Miller and Jerome Manuel each scored 13 points on the night to lead the Knights. Jakar Hamilton, who had 31 points when the teams met earlier this year, finished with 18 points. He scored 14 of those in the second-half comeback try.

"That guy is for real," Clark said.

- In girls action, Strom Thurmond (6-6) managed a 57-52 overtime win. Evans came back from a 48-37 deficit with 3:30 left to play to force the extra period.

The Rebels' Niesha Searles scored four of her 15 points in the overtime period to spark the win.

Janay Moore scored 17 of her 20 points in the first half to lead the Knights, who fell to 7-9.

Reach Jeff Sentell at (706) 823-3425 or jeff.sentell@augustachronicle.com.