KINGWOOD – The Preston Knights boys basketball team opened the 2022-23 season on Tuesday evening with a home opener against the East Fairmont Bees. The Knights took the court for the first time since the remodel, designed by co-athletic director Mitch Channell, was completed.
The Knights (0-1) fell to EFHS by a final score of 74-34 after falling behind early on in the game and being unable to find a consistent rhythm on the offensive side of the ball.
“We’re a very young team,” said first-year head coach Leroy Forbes. “It’s tough having underclassmen come out and play their first game against an experienced team like East Fairmont. We saw some good things and we are going to get better.”
In fact, to open the game the Knights kept pace with the Bees, and although the score was 8-2 early on, both teams were finding open shots on offense. Only one of them, however, was making them.
East Fairmont shot near perfect (5-6) to jump out to a lead it held for the full game. The Bees finished the game 27-of-51 from the field (53%), largely due to the number of shots from inside the paint and layups on fastbreaks. Evan Parr lead the Bees in scoring with 16, while Grayson Stewart added 14 off the bench.
“One of the things we have to be able to do is stop the runout,” Forbes said of his team’s defensive efforts. “We have to be able to see it first, then stop it. They ran some circle motion on offense and dove a player inside of the paint, and we need to fight better off our screens to get there. I think we took shots that were ill-advised and then didn’t take some when I thought we should’ve. I don’t think the score dictates our effort and we will improve.”
The Knights shot just 11-of-33 from the field, including 2-of-13 from beyond the arc. Kaden Bachtal led the PHS in scoring as the only double-digit earner with 10.
Despite the outcome, the debut of the newly-designed court drew a great crowd of Preston fans to support the team. The court includes a new logo at midcourt, with the Preston High “P” in the middle. Behind it sit a castle wall and outlining the centerpiece is the outline of Preston County.
“The court looks amazing, it is really cool,” Forbes said of the new design. “It’s a new court, a sign of new beginnings, the crowd was great tonight. We just have to continue to grow.”
The Knights will hit the road for their next game when they travel to Elkins for a game on Tuesday, December 13th next week.
TWEET – @ahhh_griff
East Fairmont 74, Preston 34
EFHS 20 21 21 12 – 74
PHS 6 10 9 8 – 34
EFHS – Parr 9 3-3 16; Stewart 7 2-3 14; Moore 4 1-2 9; Crouso 6 2-3 8; Hunt 8 0-0 8; Bowers 6 2-2 4; Nicholas 1 1-2 4; Biggie 2 2-2 4; Vangilder 2 2-2 4; Nichols 4 1-3 3
PHS – Bachtal 2 8-9 10; Ferrell 3 1-2 6; Rugg 7 0-0 4; Rosenberger 3 0-0 3; McNew 2 1-2 3; Ayers 3 0-2 2; Wagner 3 0-0 2; Smith 3 0-0 2; Hayer 2 0-0 2
3pt Goals: EFHS 2 (Parr 1; Nicholas 1). PHS 2 (Rosenberger 1; Ferrell 1)
