Snow fall, a good bargain at Marshall’s, and a Knox Womens basketball home opener at Memorial Gym. It was a perfect Friday evening.

Sitting in the stands next to fellow super fan Meg, we watched the besties play hard and play tough, and showing up late to the first quarter all I can say is it ended tied 13-13.

The second quarter started with heads up defense headed up by Catessa Duran (Sr. Albuquerque, NM) which led a flurry of frustrations for the BVU offense. The BVU team brought their passports as travels were frequent and as was heard in the stands, “it’s a good thing the police aren’t here, because there’s a lot of thievery happening on the court.” Two big plays towards the end of the half erupted memorial gym from the Knox crowd: Saxon Alvarez (Jr. El Paso, Tx) drives to the basket for a tough layup with a foul and she nails the free throw. The other big play with less than :30s left in the half comes from Kristin Herndon (Jr. Hopkins, MO) who collects a huge rebound off of a missed shot and puts up a shot only to get fouled. The 6’0” junior hits 1 of 2 free throws to tie the game up as the half comes to a close 23-23.

And if you thought Kristin was done at the half, you would’ve missed hard fought rebounds and snappy ball movement. The third quarter can be described with two words: scrappy and snappy. The passes were quick, the movement and screens were solid, and and our besties were flying left and right diving for loose balls and taking charges. Our third quarter comes to an end with Knox leading 37-36.

The fourth quarter was one with a lot of missed opportunities for the refs to do their jobs. Games cannot be lost by poor officiating, but clearly it can exasperate momentum gained in previous play. And that is what happened in quarter four. BVU came out shooting and as our defense tried to stop, we quickly were overran by unrealistic fouls putting our women in the bonus with 7minutes left to play in the quarter. Did this stop our women from playing rough? Did they give up and throw in the towel? Absolutely not. Down by 8, Sarina Dacio (So. San Diego, CA) puts up a great layup and then turns around and picks the pockets of the BVU offense on the inbound pass. At the final buzzer, the score was BVU 57, Knox Besties 44.

While the end didn’t go how we would have wanted, this sports reporter and the fans in the stand are extremely proud of the way these besties played. As they rest up and watch film, The PFSN reporters cannot be more excited to watch this team develop this season.