Knights push case for three straight after solid opening

A dominant second half from reigning two-time premiers Knights secured them a second straight win in round two of the Albany basketball Association men’s A-grade competition on Tuesday night.

After surviving a scare last week from Tigers, Knights hit the first five points of the game against Ambassadors.

Ambassadors scored the next two buckets to get it back to one point early in the first half.

They then levelled the scores through Todd Knuiman, but that was as close as they would come to the reigning champs.

The two sides traded buckets for the entire first half with Knights hitting three three-pointers to take a 23-16 lead into half-time.

Ambassadors got the margin back to three points seven minutes after the main break, before two of the next four buckets to Keanu Weeden pushed the margin out to 10 points with 12 minutes to play.

McGuire hit back-to-back three- pointers to push the margin back out to 11, before Ambassadors rallied late in the game.

Another three-pointer on the buzzer for McGuire — his fifth for the game — sealed a 51-40 win for Knights. McGuire (15 points, Weeden (11) and Kye Griffiths (nine) were important for Knights.

Knuiman led the way for Ambassadors, dropping 12 points with three of his teammates finishing with eight points.

Railways Tigers produced a strong performance to record their first A-grade win since their club joined the ranks this season.

Railways drew their first game with Barking Owls last week but came out firing in the first half, dropping 26 first-half points to lead Raiders under-18s by 19 points at half-time.

In the second half, both sides came out full of energy with the game played with plenty of speed.

Railways ran out 70-37 winners.

Big man Kalin Lane finished with 18 points for Railways while Kyle Smith (16) and Cyrus Upson (15) also put in solid shifts.

David Arthur hit three three-pointers on his way to 17 points to lead the way for Raiders while Xavier Brenton-Reed added eight points.

Raiders had positives to take away from the game despite the margin.

Barking Owls lifted after their draw against Railways in round one to record their first win of the season as they beat Blazers, 51-40.

The loss for Blazers leaves them at 0-2 in their first season in the A-grade competition.

Owls led 36-24 after a high-scoring first half, then held Blazers at bay in the second half.

Tristan Mackenzie led the way for Owls with 12 points while the returning Carwin Garcia added 11 points in his first game for a number of seasons.

Thomas Powell dropped 13 points for the Blazers to lead all scorers for the game, with Red Rogers adding 11.