Once again, they got off the blocks well.

The Knights jumped out early, playing with a sense of urgency in the first quarter. When the horn sounded, the Knights were up 12-3.

“Well we get comfortable in the lead,” said senior Matt Pickford. “and then we go and blow it again.”

And blow it North Penn did, falling to C.B. East 53-51.

In the second quarter, North Penn started to let East creep back into the game. A couple of sloppy turnovers led to easy points in transition for the Patriots.

At the half, the Knights saw their lead truncated to a measly 4 points, as they went into the locker room up 26-22.

The Knights came back out like a team hungry to fight for a win, and got back to their scoring ways. Led by strong offensive performances by Matt Pickford (15) and Chris Coleman (13), as well as good performances on the boards by Reece Udinski and Lance Lindsay-Ford, North Penn found themselves up 43-35 at the end of three.

And then the wheels fell off.

“We were 2-12 from the floor in the fourth quarter, you can’t do that. Our boys couldn’t throw the ball in the ocean” said Coach John Conrad.

A sense of disarray seemed to plague the Knights down the stretch and with single digits left on the clock with the game deadlocked at 51, an unnecessary foul sent East to the charity stripe with a chance to put the game away. And they were able to do just that.

“We gotta play 4 quarters Friday,” a bewildered Conrad said after the game. “That effort just wasn’t good enough tonight.”

“We have to learn to play as a team,” added Pickford. “We are still a young team, hopefully we’ll get there down the end, end it on a hot streak.”

The Knights are back at home Friday to take on the Panthers of Quakertown.