Knight Girls Swing Sword of Revenge

Kingsland (7-3) and Rushford-Peterson (5-2) girls basketball have been semi-aligned as of late. Each team’s senior classes played a lot as sophomores, producing a tentative rivalry. But it’s been all Trojans. Dating back to 2012, they’ve won six straight. A Brianna Koop buzzer-beater propelled R-P past Kingsland in last year’s 1A East final. Revenge is such a good motivator. In this year’s regular season meeting, Kingsland defended their way to victory. They held R-P to 34 total points, a season and 22-game low. The Trojans scored eight points in the first four minutes and 12 the final five minutes. The 27 minutes in between, they scored 14 points. Koop (8 pts, 6 rebs) was held scoreless the final 26 minutes of action. She came in averaging 18 PPG. Fouls played into all the offensive woes. Koop picked up #3 and #4 early in the second half. Leading 27-22, Kingsland took control with 11-0 late second half run that feature two three’s (Kellyn Webster, Kori Kruegel) and a three-point play (Courtney Schmidt). Their 38-22 lead became a 44-34 final. C-Schmidt (12 pts, 5 rebs, 3 stls) and Kailey Link (10 pts, 9 in first half, 5 rebs) led the way. Gracie Schmidt added 9 (pts) and 6 (rebs). Kingsland was 17 of 33 from the field (48.5%), R-P 11 of 45 (24%). Mikayla Crawford (12 pts, 4 stls) led R-P. It was the Trojans’ first game in 12 days.