The Elma Eagles found out just how good undefeated the King’s Way Christian Knights are as KWC dominated the Eagles to win 64-33 in the 1A District 4 championship game on Saturday in Elma.

For the first six minutes of the game, Elma (6-6 overall) stayed in the game and trailed KWC (11-0) by just a bucket at 6-4 as both teams struggled to hit shots against two stout defenses.

But with just under two minutes left in the first quarter, KWC’s trap and pressure defense began to lead to easy points. Knights guard Giovenny Evanson scored on a steal and breakaway layup followed by another KWC steal that led to a three from Ty Mairs and an 11-4 lead with just under two minutes to go in the first quarter.

Try as they did, the Eagles couldn’t keep the game from getting away from them against the consuming pressure of the Knights’ high-energy defense.

Leading 13-5 at the end of the first quarter, KWC essentially put the game away early in the second frame, opening the quarter on a 9-0 run to take a 22-7 lead with less than two minutes gone in the quarter.

KWC continued to pour it on just before halftime, using its pressure defense to create turnovers that converted into points. King’s Way went up by 22 on a corner three from Ryan Tyler to make it a 33-11 game with two minutes left in the half and took a 35-13 lead into the break after Aiden Pisarczyk scored on a jumper with 18 seconds left in the second quarter.

The third quarter was more of the same as the Knights offense stayed hot, frequently passing and moving to keep Elma defenders chasing. KWC took a 48-18 lead on an Evan Hernandez baseline cut and layup — one of many backdoor, baseline layups in the game for the Knights — to go up by 30 with 2:56 left in the quarter.

RYAN SPARKS | THE DAILY WORLD Elma’s Sawyer Witt (13) attempts to block the shot of King’s Way Christian’s Evan Hernandez during Saturday’s 1A District 4 Championship game at Elma High School.

“They are a really solid defensive team. You can see by their scores that they don’t give up many points and we can see why now,” Elma head coach Jeff Niemi said. “They help well, they rebound really well and when they get it they go the other way really fast and that was the story of the game. … When you can’t score against a team like that and you can’t set your defense, you’re going to be in trouble.”

With little doubt as to the outcome of the game, Elma took out most of its seniors with 1:20 left, allowing the home crowd an opportunity to acknowledge the Eagles’ accomplishment of reaching the district final for the first time since 2001.

The only starter left on the court for Elma was Brady Johnston, who scored the final two points of the game — and of his prep career — by hitting two free throws to round out the scoring at 64-33.

Cobey Moore led Elma with 10 points, eight of those coming in the second half as Elma hit just two shots from the field over the first 16 minutes of the game.

Derique Richey added nine points for Elma without scoring a field goal until the fourth quarter, hitting 5-of-6 free throws in the first half as KWC made sure Elma’s 6-foot-5 center earned his points from the line when the outcome was still in question.

Twenty-one turnovers in the game — 14 in the first half — really hurt the Eagles’ chances, leading to KWC taking nearly twice as many shots as Elma.

“We had too many turnovers in the first half and I thought we had a good plan for their pressure but they did a good job of taking it away,” Niemi said. “I think that was definitely a big factor and once we did get into the half-court, they hunkered down and played really great half-court defense.”

RYAN SPARKS | THE DAILY WORLD Elma’s Nick Church goes up for a shot against King’s Way Christian’s Ty Mairs (21) during the 1A District 4 Championship game on Saturday in Elma.

The Eagles shot 10-of-29 (34%) from the floor overall, which included a 4-for-19 (21%) shooting night through the first three quarters.

Meanwhile, KWC shot 25-for-52 (48%) including 7-of-10 (44%) from the 3-point line.

Geovanny Evanson and Bryce Dodge led the Knights with 14 points apiece with Hernandez adding 10 for KWC.

Looking back on what had been a historic yet peculiar season, Niemi appreciated the accomplishments of his senior class and felt the game was a great learning experience for his younger players.

“It’s just a testament to the seniors that were able to put us to the next level, one we haven’t been to in years,” Niemi said. “All their hard work paid off for that and my message to the younger guys is now you see what a (state) placing type team looks like and that’s the skill level you need to be working toward.”

KWC 13 22 17 12 — 64

Elma 5 8 5 15 — 33