City of Basketball Love

Andrew Robinson (@ADRobinson3)
__

WARMINSTER — Emily Knouse was here, she was there, she was back over here then flying back over there, each time getting a tip, a tap, a slap or some other kind of disruption of the ball in flight.

With Archbishop Wood off to a slow start in its first home game of the year, Knouse was subbed out of the game early in the first quarter and got a directive from the Vikings’ coaches: be active. When the sophomore re-entered a few possessions later, she was a whirling dervish of energy, deflections and everything else as Wood turned up the pressure on visiting Conwell-Egan.

A role player, albeit a talented one, on Wood’s state title team last year, Knouse is looking to bring a lot more to the table this season and her energetic play was a big reason why the Vikings pulled away to win their PCL opener over the Eagles 68-32 on Thursday.

“On our press, coach Mike (McDonald) just said ‘I need you to get up, I need you to make deflections,’” Knouse said. “He said I had these long arms, so I needed to get in there, so I told him ‘you got it.’ I just tried to anticipate as best I could and get steals or deflections.”

Thursday’s game wasn’t just Wood’s home and PCL opener, it was the Vikings’ first game in the state of Pennsylvania this year and early the reigning PIAA 4A champs looked like strangers in their own gym. Having not played since before the New Year and with senior forward and Albany recruit Deja Evans also under the weather this week — Evans came off the bench as opposed to starting Thursday — Wood didn’t have a lot of juice early.

With Egan’s Lily Milewski giving them headaches via her nine first-quarter points, Wood’s coaches pulled a few of the starters, including Knouse, out to refocus. The sophomore came back fired up, scoring four straight to end the frame for a 13-9 Wood lead that would only grow larger as the game went on.

“We talked to her after the first rotation about being aggressive on the catch against Milewski so she couldn’t get to the basket as much and she really just turned it on for us,” McDonald said. “Em’s got a bright future ahead of her. She’s just finding her comfort zone here as a sophomore with an increased role from last year, but she knows how to play, she’s got a strong build, shoots the ball well and is just a really smart, mature kid.”

Knouse, who plays AAU for the Comets, finished with a nice all-around line of 12 points including a pair of 3-pointers, two rebounds, four assists, three steals and close to a dozen deflections. That kind of skill set is often in demand and Knouse is already catching Division I interest, owning offers from St. Joe’s, Monmouth, Holy Cross and Drexel.

This year’s Vikings are a little different as there’s no Kaitlyn Orihel or Ryanne Allen to be the center of attention, but there are a lot of quality pieces that fit together well. Thursday, Wood had three players with 12-or-more points, another with eight and in total, 11 different Vikings scored a basket. McDonald said where the team will excel this season is when the players are able to read the defense and find the right person, as it did in the third quarter when senior Allie Fleming caught fire with nine of her 13 points in the frame and a great cross-court feed that found Knouse for a three.

Wood has succeeded by conceptually leveling up its players, letting them gain experience in practice so they’re more seasoned when it’s their time to take the court. So if Allen, Bri Bowen and Shannon Morgan aren’t on the team, they still have an influence on this year’s crew.

“They’re all good and they’re practicing against each other so when one group of kids graduates, the kids coming in behind them just got done practicing against them every day,” McDonald said. “That way, when their time comes, the games are a little bit easier because they’ve had that time practicing against some of the best players in the state.”

Knouse certainly leveled up quickly last year, finding time on the floor with her shooting prowess, but knew she could offer a lot more this year. She also had a player’s guide of sorts in her older brother Mike, who bided his time with the boys’ team before breaking through as a starter last year as a senior and now playing at Lock Haven.

“He didn’t play much at the beginning of his school career here, so we related in that way,” Knouse said. “He always told me, keep a good spirit and hype up your teammates, that’s your job on the team and when you get in, make your shots.”

The Knouse aerial show was at its best in the second quarter, when Wood put the pressure on the Eagles. McDonald noted that Egan was short-handed, with guard Mya Aizen out injured, and a stronger team than the final score indicated. Still, he didn’t want the visitors to hang around too long and with Knouse getting a hand on seemingly just about every other pass and Egan three, Wood ran away with a 24-7 frame.

“We’re huge on defense and rebounding, even if you go up for a rebound and tip it to a teammate, we want to get it and go,” Knouse said. “I’m always talking with my teammates about what’s behind me and we’re always talking to each other, ‘I got two here,’ or ‘I got the corner,’ just letting me know ‘I got you,’ so I can go for one.”

Knouse assisted Kara Meredith’s three to open the second, found Ava Renninger for a basket, buried a three of her own and added a pair of steals in the quarter. Renninger was pretty energetic herself, scoring 12 points with three assists and three steals while Meredith had eight to lead the Vikings’ offense.

The sophomore, who hails from Horsham, also made a good habit of giving an emphatic point to every teammate who assisted her made shots, the last going to Fleming after Knouse’s three ended an 8-0 flurry for a 54-18 lead in the third and gave Wood’s reserves a chance to get extended playing time.

Knouse, who stands about 6-foot and made All-PCL in volleyball this fall, said her focus over the summer was getting her release to go off quicker citing the always increasing size and skill of opponents. On top of that, noting a lot of her shots last year came off assists, she worked to up her catch-and-shoot accuray and conversely, her drive-and-kick looks to set up teammates.

“Last year, we had superstars like Ryanne and Bri so you could say ‘here, man, here’s the ball,’ and that was great and we won tons of games and they were awesome teammates,” Knouse said. “Now, it’s kind of like, we don’t have one certain person so we all trust each other and look for each other and that’s what makes us a great team.”

With an expanded role comes expanded responsibilities and Knouse said she’s using her voice a lot more, trying to help her teammates the way they’ve helped her be able to jump passing routes and fly around the floor knowing she’s covered.

Wood’s schedule doesn’t get easier, with a few more non-league challenges interwoven into the PCL gauntlet but after a lot of bus rides out of state, it was just good to be home on Thursday and getting back to what the Vikings know best.

“We’re looking forward to PCL play,” Knouse said. “Playing the nationally ranked teams and out of state, it’s always fun and intense but I think we’re really excited to start the PCL and especially see how we do against those really good Carroll, O’Hara and LC teams.”

By Quarter

ARCHBISHOP WOOD 13 | 21 | 17 | 14 || 68

CONWELL-EGAN CATHOLIC 9 | 7 | 5 | 11 || 32

Scoring

AW: Allie Fleming 13, Ava Renninger 12, Emily Knouse 12, Kara Meredith 8, Delaney Fleming 5, Deja Evans 4, Lauren Greer 4, Sophia Topakas 3, Alexa Windish 3, Campbell McCloskey 2, Lauren Tretter 2

CEC: Lily Milewski 16, Brianna McFadden 5, Brooke McFadden 3, Kyliyah Carmichael 2, Ariella Parks 2, Molly Milewski 2, Sara Aschenbrenner 2