Saturday afternoon was Knight time at the OVAC Girls Basketball Championships.
Usually, though, that phrase translates into a good afternoon for Wheeling Central.
The Maroon Knights certainly have earned their fair share of OVAC glory throughout the last few decades.
But that wasn’t the case here. This particular Knight stands 5-foot-10 and was sporting River Pilots’ red, grey, and white.
And she was a handful all afternoon for the Knights in Maroon.
Rylee Knight is a senior post player for head coach Rick Isaly’s now OVAC 2A champion Pilots. She, along with fellow senior Hannah Raper and junior Kelsey Harlan form the quintessential “Big Three” on the Pilots roster.
Each is an integral part of the roster and each brings something different to the table. Each also did their part Saturday.
Raper cashed in on a trio of 3-pointers, finished with 11 points, and, most importantly, held Wheeling Central leading scorer Brooke Edge to nine points. Raper’s familiarity with Edge from their days playing together on the OV Shock came in handy and the senior kept the Knights’ point guard relatively in check all afternoon.
Harlan scored 19 points, dished out assists, came up with steals, and ultimately did enough for officials at courtside to name her MVP for the game.
It was a deserving, noteworthy performance. But Islay’s team produced two MVP-caliber performances that day, and it was the one from Knight that was consistent, and dominant, throughout.
Coming up 21s.
River High entered Saturday’s OVAC Class 2A finale with a 19-1 record and the top seed. Central, seeded No. 2, owned an equally impressive 15-3 record.
A good game should have ensued. And it did.
Central and River battled back and forth for about a quarter and a half before a 14-0 run to close the half resulted in a 35-20 Pilots’ lead at the break.
Wheeling Central coach Roberta Olejasz pointed out that 6-foot senior Keiera Wilkinson’s extended stay on the bench in foul trouble was a big reason for that run.
She wasn’t wrong. Wilkinson had six points early in transition and her presence in the paint is invaluable.
But with or without her on the court, Central wasn’t able to slow down Knight, nor keep her off the boards.
The senior posted one of the best games of her career in perhaps its biggest, scoring 21 points and adding an equal 21 rebounds.
Of that total, 13 were offensive rebounds and Knight scored eight of her points off direct putbacks.
“Rylee is a beast on the boards, no matter the size of who she’s going up against,” Isaly said. “I’ll put her up against anybody any day of the week and she’ll be right there with them.
“She’s strong, aggressive, and does a great job for us. Plus, she can step out and hit a shot for us now and again.”
That shot Isaly alluded to was a 3-pointer from the wing Knight popped midway through the third quarter. It was just her fourth triple this season.
But Knight’s game is on the inside, and as previously stated, it was dominant and consistent. Her 21 points were evenly distributed throughout the four quarters—four in the first, followed by six, then five, then six again in the fourth.
The rebounds were just as consistent—10 in the first half, 11 in the second.
Central has multiple tall, strong, and capable posts to run at Knight, even when Wilkinson was on the bench. It mattered not.
The Pilots’ senior outboxed, outworked and outmuscled her counterparts for seemingly every potential rebound.
She’d seen film on Central and knew the challenge that faced her. And she was ready.
“We hadn’t played Central yet, but they are pretty physical,” Knight. “It was kind of harder to get the rebounds because of their size, but I tried to use my speed and get position.”
When central inevitably made its run in the fourth and cut it to six, it was Knight who plugged the damn. After setting a pick for Harlan, she peeled off, took a perfect pass from the Pilots’ PG, and converted with 3:54 remaining.
That gave River an eight-point lead with 3:54 remaining. Central would get no closer.
River has one regular season game remaining before the postseason begins where the Pilots are the top seed in the district.
If the Pilots are to continue to survive and advance, it will take equally impressive performances from Knight and her teammates to do so. They certainly seem up to the challenge.
