MONTGOMERY — The Barr-Reeve Vikings took out any frustration they might have felt after falling to South Knox in the championship game of the Graber Post Buildings Holiday Classic last Saturday on North Knox in a 67-27 blowout win on Tuesday.
In remaining perfect in Blue Chip Conference play, Class A No. 6 Barr-Reeve (8-2, 3-0) dominated North Knox (2-8, 0-4). The Vikings never trailed, but were tied 3-3 midway through the first quarter. But a conventional 3-point play from Brandon Graber seconds later gave B-R a 6-3 lead, a margin which would grow to 15-4 at the break as Trey Hughes and Ethan Knepp combined to outscore North Knox 9-1 in the final 3:00 of the quarter.
Barr-Reeve’s lead continued to grow throughout the rest of the half. Barr-Reeve’s halfcourt trap completely took the Warriors — who committed 10 first half turnovers and shot just 4-16 (25 percent in the opening half — out of any semblance of an offense. That in turn allowed the Vikings to get out on the break and get some easy baskets.
Hughes and Knepp were the main beneficiaries of those easy baskets. Hughes scored all of his game high 15 points in the first half, while Knepp had nine by halftime and added a trey early in the third quarter to finish with 12 points. Barr-Reeve burned the nets at a 59 percent clip (14-24) in the first half and finished the night shooting 58 percent from the field.
The Viking lead ballooned to 25 points at 35-8 by the half, with the final points coming on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from Knepp to close out the second quarter.
After the slow start in the first quarter, the Vikings played very well according to coach Bryan Hughes.
“After that, I thought we were pretty good, we were pretty sharp. I thought we had a lot of energy defensively, we really got after them, did a little halfcourt trap then some man-to-man,” said Hughes. “I thought offensively, we had good ball movement and we found people inside. That’s going to be a key for us to play really well, that’s what we have to do.”
Hughes pulled his starters midway through the third quarter with Barr-Reeve leading 47-12, though the Viking bench would continue to build the lead until it grew to 45 points on a basket by Luke Harmon late in the fourth quarter. In all, 10 Vikings reached the scoring column, with Graber finishing with eight points, followed by Kendall Murphy, Harmon, Beau Gregory, and Logan Knepp adding six points each.
More important to Hughes than the win was the manner in which it was achieved after the Vikings, who were playing their fourth game in seven days, suffered a tough double overtime defeat last Saturday.
“We talked about that. We talked about having a focus to play, about coming out and playing hard and playing well,” said Hughes. “I thought our guys came out after the South Knox loss and got back to business tonight.”
Brock Boberg led the Warriors with nine points.
In the JV game, the Vikings of coach Aaron Ash remained perfect at 7-0 with a 57-24 win. Jonathon Gingerich led B-R with 10 points, followed by nine apiece from Josh Swartzentruber and Ashton Wagler.
Barr-Reeve travels to Forest Park on Friday.
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