Knights fall on Thanksgiving weekend to No. 5 Reivers

Council Bluffs, Iowa – No. 5 Iowa Western Community College held off a late fourth quarter rally to defeat the Knights 88-72 inside Reiver Arena on Saturday.

"I am extremely proud of how we handled the pressure and responded down the stretch of the game," said head coach Jeff Thurman. "Our transition offense worked really well in the fourth quarter to help us climb back into the game against a highly ranked Reivers squad."

Freshman forward Reece Halley led the Knights with 16 points, three rebounds and one steal. Samantha Riggles matched her teammate with 16 points and three rebounds, while accounting for three of the Knights ten assists in the game.

Knights were outrebounded, 29-25, by the Reivers, while committing a season low 14 turnovers. North Platte closed out the game shooting 44.1 percent (26-59) from the field, including a season best 70.6 percent shooting from the floor in the fourth quarter.

Knights struck first as Riggles connected from beyond the arc, before sophomore guard Fumnanya Ijeh added to the lead with a contested long-range jumper. Trailing 5-0 early, the Reivers capitalized on a 13-4 run to surge ahead.

Caela Tighe provided the spark the Reivers needed connecting on back-to-back three pointers to give the home team the lead late in the opening ten minutes. Iowa Western never looked back stretching their lead to 21-13 by the end of the first quarter.

It was a quiet opening four minutes of the second quarter, before the Reivers lead stretched to twelve on a three by Tighe. The margin hovered around ten until some hot perimeter shooting helped extend the Iowa Western lead to 49-27 at the halftime break.

The Iowa Western offense never cooled off in the third quarter, as the margin stayed above twenty-three for the next ten minutes.

Despite the large deficit the Knights continued to find high percentage looks at the basket, which helped trim the margin to 85-72 inside the final minute of regulation. Reivers closed out the game with a punctuation three pointer to remain unbeaten on the season.

The Knights return to road action on Monday, Nov. 28 against Northeast Community College. Tip is set for 5:30 in Norfolk inside the Cox Activities Center. The Hawks defeated North Platte 77-49 in their previous meeting back on Nov. 19.