ROYAL – The Royal Knights earned two victories at home over the weekend, with the first being against the Wahluke Warriors on Friday and the second being against Cashmere on Saturday. 

“I think both nights we played pretty good defense,” said Knights head coach Tim Ravet. “The defense seems to be ahead of our offense as far as keeping guys in front and moving the ball.”

Wahluke 

The Knights got off on the right foot during Friday’s matchup to outpace Wahluke on offense in the first quarter. The Warriors would push to keep pace, but would still be behind 18-9 by the end of the quarter. 

The second quarter went similarly, with the Royal defense holding Wahluke to four points while the offense scored 11. By halftime, the score was 29-13 in favor of the Knights. 

Royal would continue to increase their lead in the third quarter, adding 19 while the Warriors added 10. Wahluke stayed close in points in the fourth quarter, but Royal would once again stay ahead and the game would end 61-35 in favor of the Knights. 

Cashmere 

The next day, the Knights would host Cashmere in another South Central Athletic Conference matchup, where the Knights once again showed their dominance on the court.  

Royal would score 16 points in the first quarter while holding Cashmere to only two. The second quarter would be even more successful on offense as the Knights would score 28 points to Cashmere’s 8 to end the half 44-10. 

Things would phase into a more defensive game by the second half as the Knights would only put up 13 points while Cashmere would put up another eight. Cashmere would outscore Royal in the final quarter, but the lead that the Knights built up in the first half would secure their 63-29 victory. 

“Our key with our length, size and quickness is trying to keep people in front of us and make them shoot over us. Not reaching and getting beat to where the guy gets a lane to the basket,” said Ravet.  

During the two nights of play, the coach said the team learned a lot about what they need to do for success moving forward. From just Wahluke’s game on Friday to Cashmere on Saturday, he noticed the players making huge strides on defense and making sure they force their opponent to make the tough shots. 

He said one of the struggles that the team has found so far in the early parts of the season is getting back in the basketball mindset after just having ended the football season only a few weeks prior.  

“It seems we’re still getting our legs and getting familiar with the round ball instead of a football, but shooting’s getting a little better and definitely starting to handle the ball better so that’s been good so far,” said the coach. 

While it has been a tough development with most of the varsity starters only having a few days of practice before the start of the season and having them pick up on stuff that the other players had already been working on while the football season was still happening. Ravet said the important thing early in the season is to make sure they are in the right physical condition to play and the fundamentals will come as the season progresses. 

Even with this slight setback, the Knights have started their season 4-0, which the coach attributes to the players’ love of the sport. 

“I think they enjoy playing basketball, they put in a lot of time outside of the season and then they’re just good athletes with a good competitive spirit,” he said. “They understand basketball pretty well, they enjoy it and they play hard at it, so they’re going to be successful.” 

For the next matchup, the Knights will head on the road to Arizona to play in a multiday tournament right after Christmas. Ravet said this will be a good opportunity for both the coaches and the players to build chemistry as they make the long journey south. 

“Getting that chemistry together so that you can play well when you start getting squeezed a little bit,” he said. 

The Knights will be heading to Arizona this weekend to play in a tournament against Chaparral on Saturday at 1 p.m. and Scottsdale Christian Academy on Monday at 3 p.m. The Warriors will also be playing in a tournament this weekend at Granger High School with a game against Granger on Friday at 8 p.m. and against Sunnyside Christian on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. 

BOX SCORE:  

GAME ONE:  

ROYL: 18-11-19-13: 61 

WHLK: 9-4-10-12: 35 

GAME TWO:  

ROYL: 16-28-13-6: 63 

CASH: 2-8-8-11: 29 

Royal Roster: 

Name, Jersey, Grade 

Manny Ruvalcaba, 0, 11 

Fischer Livingston, 1, 11 

Major Andra, 2, 11 

Dax Jenks, 4, 11 

Henry Brown, 5, 10 

Jerry Fielding, 10, 11 

Britt Wardenaar, 13, 9 

Anderson Brown, 23, 12 

Grant Wardenaar, 24, 11 

Bryan Larsen, 34, 12 

Wahluke Roster: 

Name, Jersey, Grade 

Jose Acevedo, 1, 11 

Ethan Moreno, 2, 10 

Jack Hyndman, 3, 11 

Rafael Rodriguez, 4, 12 

Rylan Zirker, 10, 10 

Carlos Zamora, 11, 10 

Jesus Rivera, 12, 11 

Sunsky Buck, 22, 12 

Keaton Zirker, 23, 12 

Kobe Corrales, 24, 10 

Franco Perez, 32, 11 

Rex Buck, 33, 11 

    Wahluke sophomore Ethan Moreno works to halt Royal junior Grant Wardenaar’s push toward the net during Friday’s matchup.
  

    Grant Wardenaar from the Knights makes a quick pass to an open teammate during Friday’s game against the Warriors.
  

    Knights junior Dax Jenks plots his next move to get around Warriors senior Rafael Rodriguez to make a score.
  

    Rex Buck, a senior for the Warriors, works to get around a defensive front put up by Major Andra, a junior for the Knights.
  

    Rafael Rodriguez from the Warriors prepares to speed past Anderson Brown from the Knights.