TOWAMENCIN- The Knights are known for their defense but Wednesday night, it was their offense that took center stage.

The North Penn Knights (18-7) beat the Central Bucks East Patriots (17-9) 58-41 in a district one playoff seeding game as both teams have already made the state tournament.

“I think we are playing better basketball now.  Sometimes it take a little while to get into a groove and the girls if you see them, whether it be the girls who start for us or the girls that come off the bench, everybody just seems to be in a rhythm that doesn’t matter.  We put people on the floor and continue playing on a certain level,” North Penn Head Coach Jen Carangi said.

The first points of the night were put on the board with 7:35 left in the first quarter as Alli Lindsay scored off a Katie Early assist.  The Patriots took a 4-3 lead after Emily Chmiel’s bucket with 5:07 left in the quarter.  The Knights reclaimed the lead as Val McGriff drove to the rim for a layup with 3:15 left in the opening quarter.  Early had a big first quarter after that as she made a three to extend the lead and then came up with a monster block that was sent almost out of bounds.  Early hustled for the ball however and saved it, which led to two more points on the other end.  She added another block after that.  At the end of the first quarter, the score was 12-4 in favor of North Penn.

“In practice, we’ve really been working on our help defense cause especially when we played East last, our help defense was not good.  So, we really focused on it in practice and I guess the practice just kicked in and I was able to like see ahead before the play happened,” Early explained on her shot blocking defense.

It was a wrap after the first quarter as the Knights ran away with it and a big part of that was Alli Lindsay.  Lindsay had a layup in the second quarter before hitting a deep three and another one to help build the lead.  The score at halftime was 32-19.

“My teammates really found me the ball.  They were kinda over playing me a little bit, so when it went into that zone, I knew that I could get wide open on the wing.  I was just looking for the open spaces cause I felt good in warmups so if I kept shooting, one of them would go in,” Lindsay said.

Lindsay continued her strong play in the third quarter starting with a heat check as she knocked down a deep three-pointer to keep it rolling.  She finished with 21 points.

“As soon as I hit that three, I knew we were good.  All of us were hustling really hard and I knew making these shots would pay in the long run with my team, especially in the fourth quarter, all getting a little tired from running a lot, so it definitely helped,” Lindsay said on her big third quarter shot.

The Knights will now travel to Upper Dublin Friday in their pursuit to achieve the highest seed possible for the state bracket.

“[Upper Dublin] is tough and they are very well coached so we’re just going to come out and continue playing high level basketball.  I feel like going into states we want to be doing that anyway, so I’m thrilled with the way they played tonight and hope to continue it Friday,” Coach Carangi said.

CB East: Burns 2 pts, Finnan 3 pts, Wilga 5 pts, Deangelis 5 pts, Salvati 7 pts, Chmiel 19 pts

North Penn: Doran 2 pts, Dunn 4 pts, Mullaly 6 pts, Adams 6 pts, Early 7 pts, McGriff 12 pts, Lindsay 21 pts