St. Peter Knights guard Christopher Valcin tries to penetrate the St. Pat's defence on the dribble during their senior boys match-up on Tuesday. Fred Sherwin/Photo

The St. Peter Knights went into their game against the St. Patrick Irish last week hoping to see how they measured up against one of the co-favourites to win the AAA senior boys hoops championships this year.

Unfortunately, a slow start left them coming up short in what turned out to be an 11 point loss.

The Knights trailed 10-2 before the contest was four minutes old. The hot shooting Irish extended their lead to 14 points by the two minute mark of the second quarter and by halftime they led 36-23.

The Irish extended their lead to 16 points in the early moments of the second half before the Knights finally started to battle back. A couple of three point baskets by Curtis Cunningham and Sam Musafiri in the third stanza would cut the Irish lead in half, but that would be as close as the defending city champions would get.

By the end of the quarter St. Pat's had reestablished a 13-point advantage with one quarter left to play,

Refusing to give up, the Knights battled back once again and eventually managed to narrow the deficit to seven points with 1:18 left to play.

A couple of near misses down the stretch kept St. Pete's from getting any closer and the final score was 63-55 in favour of the Irish.

Musafiri ended the game with a team high 15 points. Michael Gouombas-Lussamaki added 14 points and was eight for 10 from the free throw line and Hughie Brooks scored 13 points including a pair of three-point baskets.

In the end, however, the Knights were the masters of their own demise thanks to a combination of poor shot selection, an inordinate amount of missed put-backs and a disproportionate number of rebounds in favour of the Irish, To put it mildly, the Knights were horrible on the boards.

But it was the slow start that really hurt St. Pete's, especially against a team that has 16 players on its roster, eight of whom factored in their scoring.

The Knights inability to match St. Pat's up-tempo game in the early going and the difficult situation it put them in was not lost on head coach Dan Lutfy.

"We've consistently gotten off to a slow start this year and we need to change that.� Lutfy said after the game. "I've been happy that we've managed to come back in games, but we need to get off to a better start.�

The one thing that works in the Knights favour is the fact that the season is still in the early days and there is plenty of time to right the ship before the playoffs begin in late January.

The boys high school basketball season is unique in that it spans both the Christmas break and January exams. Lutfy remains confident the team will have its act together by the time the playoffs roll around.

"I think we thought we were still a championship calibre team and we're not their yet. We still have a lot of work to do,� says Lutfy.

The road to the AAA city champion-ship will eventually have to go through both St. Pat's and Louis Riel, which is proving to be the cream of the crop. Last year's OFSAA �A' silver medalists have so far racked up an impressive record, winning their first four games by an average of 12 points per game including a 63-50 win over St. Pat's on Dec. 6.

(This story was made possible thanks to the generous support of our local business partners.)