Knights defend their castle

BLADENBORO — The West Bladen Knights defeated the St. Pauls Bulldogs for a 51-29 victory on Tuesday night for a SAC 6 clash. St. Pauls came into Tuesday’s match-up on a six game skid and they’ve been averaging around 41.2 ppg since the start of the New Year; unfortunately for the Bulldogs their struggles continued against a red-hot West Bladen team away from home.

The Knights held them to their lowest scoring game of the season and they forced over 15 turnovers on the night. West Bladen’s junior center Chase Williams led all scorers with 20 points, despite sitting out most of the first half due to foul trouble and the Bulldogs were led in scoring by their sophomore center Tyson Thompspn with 10 points.

The first quarter started off tight between the two teams as they traded field goals in a lightning fast start. Sophomore guard Jackson Pait drained a three-point dagger to get the home crowd off their feet and give the Knights a 9-6 lead. The Bulldogs attempted to force a pass inside to Thompson on their next possession and Williams was there to snatch it for the steal. West Bladen quickly moved the ball down the floor and Williams found the ball in his hands once more for the finish inside to extend the host lead.

St. Pauls’ senior guard Jordan Cook went 50 percent from the free throw line to give the Bulldogs their final points of the quarter. Williams nailed a mid-range jumper just before the buzzer to give the Knights a 13-7 lead going into the second quarter. Sophomore forward Tylik McCall kept the offense flowing for the Knights with a three-pointer to start the next quarter.

St. Pauls’ followed it up with Thompson getting a bucket inside the painted area and then they forced a miss on the other end of the floor before slicing their opponents lead some more with a floater from Tykeem Oxendine. West Bladen went cold from the field momentarily and Williams went to the bench after his second foul of the half.

St. Pauls couldn’t capitalize on the extra possessions and their opponents didn’t stay cold for long. Junior guard Hezekiah Adams popped up for the mid-range shot and got a shooter’s roll to extend the host lead to seven. St. Pauls’ struggles persisted but their opponents were not making their shots so the gap remained single digits.

Adams split a triple-team before driving the lane for an easy finish to extend the Knights lead to 21-13. Thompson got a put-back two on the Bulldogs second to last possession of the first half and Adams pushed the score to 23-15 with another lay-up inside for the Knights final points to end the half.

The third quarter started off with two St. Pauls’ turnovers in quick succession and Adams got the Knights going with a lay-up on the fastbreak. St. Pauls would attempt to respond but came up empty after missing their shot from range. William extended the lead with an acrobatic finish at the rim to put the Knights up by 12.

St. Pauls failed to find an immediate response and Williams scored once more after shaking his defender inside for the two-point flush. Senior guard Markeon Fletcher ended the Bulldogs coldstreak with a driving finish through traffic to make the game 31-18. Pait would answer with strong drive inside to widen the gap to 16 points. Turnovers continued to kill the visitors momentum and the Knights would make them pay with Pait draining a three-pointer from the top of the key.

Thompson would get the Bulldogs’ their final points of the quarter with a lay-up inside but the visitors were left with a huge mountain to climb in the fourth quarter. Williams went on to score eight points in the final quarter as the Knights coasted to victory. West secured their 12th straight victory as their overall record moved to 14-1 and they are currently tied for the top spot in the SAC 6 with Fairmont at 3-0.

St. Pauls falls to 0-3 in conference play but they’ll have a chance to bounce back on Friday against Clinton. West Bladen will host a pivotal match-up against the 12-3 Fairmont Golden Tornadoes this Friday at 7:30 pm.