KINGWOOD — Something special might be starting at the Castle at Preston High School.
The PHS gym, affectionately known as the Castle, is heavily fortified by a young team that can shoot, play some defense and is hungry to win.
On Friday, the Knights (6-11) nearly clawed back from a 17-point deficit before falling to visiting Lincoln 63-51.
“It’s the Castle – it was rocking tonight,” Preston head coach Bucky Forbes said. “It’s our fans, it’s our students. You can feel a lot more electricity. Especially when we were making that run.”
The run Forbes is speaking of began late in the second quarter with the Knights trailing 30-13. They were able to close the game to 33-23 at halftime and then to just 46-42 at the end of the third quarter thanks to a nearly half-court shot from junior Kaden Bachtel.
“(Preston) is getting better there’s no doubt about that,” Lincoln coach Jordan Toth said which is high praise considering that the Cougars beat the Knights 73-45 earlier this season. “I’ve seen it on film all year. We have seen a lot of them while looking at other opponents. They’re playing with a lot of confidence – especially at home.”
The Knights are now 6-2 at home and nearly pulled off the comeback victory on Friday as they trailed 48-44 early in the fourth quarter. But the PHS offense then went cold as it hit just three field goals in the period and managed just nine points.
“We just ran out of gas,” Forbes said. “Our kids are maturing and they’re getting better. We aren’t turning the ball over as much and these guys have seen a lot of basketball now even though we are still a young team.”
Lincoln (6-8) held a 53-46 lead on the Knights with just over three minutes left in the game and then decided to hold the ball for an entire minute of play before Preston was forced to foul.
“We still wanted to attack with three minutes to play but the way they were playing us, they were kind of packed in,” Toth said. “Our goal was to try to get to the rim and make them play man-to-man defense against us.”
The strategy worked as the Cougars had eight free throws and just one field goal the rest of the way to pick up the victory.
Bachtel led the Knights and all scorers with 20 points including four 3-pointers while teammate Brier Rugg scored 12.
Lincoln had four players score double digits as Brayden Edgell scored 18, Landon Swiger 13 with Aidan Rice and David Burdett each scoring 10.
The Knights return to action on Wednesday when they travel to Robert C. Byrd. Lincoln is back in action today as it hosts Hampshire.
By ERIC HERTER
BOX SCORE
Lincoln 63, Preston 51
1 2 3 4 F
LCHS 15 20 11 17 63
PHS 10 16 16 9 51
LHS – Edgell 5 5-5 18, Sears 2 1-2 6, Rice 5 0-0 10, Burdette 3 3-6 10, Swiger 4 5-7 13, Lanham 1 0-0 3, Finch 1 0-0 3. Totals: 21 14-21 63.
PHS – Manko 0 2-2 2, Bachtel 6 4-4 20, Hayes 2 2-2 6, White 2 0-0 4, Rugg 4 1-2 12, Smith 2 1-3 5. Totals: 16 10-13 51.
3-Pointers – LCHS: Edgell 3, Sears, Burdette, Lanham, Finch. PHS: Bachtel 4, Hayes 2, Rugg 3.
Fouled Out – Manko.
