Smooth as silk, Trojans spin web over St. Peter, 87-52
Feb. 24—WORTHINGTON — Early in the second half of Worthington's home high school boys basketball game Friday with St. Peter, a Saints fan was overheard to say to a pal as the Trojans' Kaleb Knothe swished a free throw, "He's got 14 points! I never even noticed him."
That's probably understandable. The Trojans were so coolly efficient in their 87-52 triumph over the Saints in what was perhaps one of their best offensive showings of the season, the visiting rooters may have hypnotized themselves.
Perhaps the Saints players, too, were hypnotized by what they saw. Ten different Trojans scored points, and four of them scored in double figures at the Worthington High School gym. They hit on nine 3-point shots and connected on 18 of 26 free throws. Their passing was as crisp as ever, and they were able to move freely around and through the Saints' defense.
"I think we definitely shot well," said Knothe, who along with teammate Zachary Hayenga scored 17 points in the game. "We got the ball around to everybody and made lots of scoring."
Knothe's offensive game might be easy to miss if you're not paying attention. He's smooth as a silkworm and knows how to maneuver through traffic for soft layups while at the same time shooting the trey.
The 6-1 junior said the WHS players read a sports article written outside of town that talked about Worthington being one of the "surprise teams in Triple-A" because of its defense. Head coach Clint Meyer and the rest of the Trojans like to lead with their hard-working, tough, physical defense to create their offense. But Knothe also said one of the team's goals is to keep rivals under 50 points per game.
They didn't do it on Friday. But they were close.
However, no Trojan went away disappointed, by virtue of how the offense looked.
"We made up for it," Knothe said.
En route to improving their regular season record to 18-4, the Trojans moved to a 16-5 lead in the first six minutes of the first half as Hayenga and Marenono Opiew hit back-to-back 3-point shots. A little bit later, they started on an 11-0 run as Abagotte Opiew converted a steal into a dunk, Charles Brands scored a 3-point play with a free throw, Hayenga meshed another 3-pointer and Knothe sunk a 3-pointer for a 29-9 lead.
It was 53-26 at intermission. With 4:38 to play, Worthington led 81-46.
Abagotte Opiew finished with 16 points for the Trojans. Brands had 12 points and Jacari Swinea added eight.
Luke Gilbertson and Joshua Bosacker scored 11 and 10 points, respectively, to pace St. Peter, which is now 4-19 on the season.
St. Peter 26 52
Worthington 53 87
ST. PETER (3FG-2FG-FT-TP) — Volk 1-1-3-8, Soderlund 1-0-0-3, Bosacker 1-2-3-10, Gilbertson 1-4-0-11, Moelter 0-1-0-2, Olson 1-1-2-7, Guida 1-3-0-9, Nicolai 0-1-0-2. Totals 6-13-8-52.
WORTHINGTON (3FG-2FG-FT-TP) — Walu 0-2-0-4, A.Opiew 3-3-1-16, M.Opiew 1-1-1-6, Brands 0-4-4-12, Hayenga 4-1-3-17, Knothe 1-4-6-17, Swinea 0-3-2-8, P.Okony 0-1-0-2, Zeidi 0-0-1-1, Lia 0-1-0-2. Totals 9-20-18-87.