The Bremerton Knights (11-1, 7-1 in Olympic League) beat the Port Angeles Roughriders (5-5, 3-2 OL) 66-59 Jan. 9 at home despite being without standout player Jalen Davis and head coach Miah Davis, who were both attending a family member’s funeral in North Carolina.

But the Knights showed that they have plenty of depth to still pull out the win against one of the top teams in the OL, and the team felt like it was valuable to play a close game again, given all the blowout victories they’ve had this season.

“It feels good to have a close game after all these blowouts,” Knight Enoch Taylor said.

The Knights and Roughriders traded leads early throughout the first quarter, with Matthews and guard Kaliam Hunter doing a majority of the scoring for Bremerton.

Bremerton came out with a full-court press, attempting to control PA’s offense and limit their scoring. The Knights attempted to get their offense going through Matthews, who scored 11 points in the first. Nonetheless, the game was tied after one at 16 apiece.

The Knights maintained their full-court press at the beginning of the second quarter and found early success, limiting PA’s offense.

Knight Enoch Taylor got Bremerton out to their first multiple-possession lead of the game at 22-18 after converting a long two-pointer. Bremerton jumped out to its largest lead of the game at five after guard Hunter drilled a three-pointer, giving the Knights a 26-21 lead with 3:42 remaining in the half.

But PA responded by tying the game back up at 26 with a long three-pointer of their own. Hunter continued to have a strong quarter, generating breakaway layups off turnovers and allowing the Knights to have a 33-28 lead entering halftime. Matthews and Hunter led the Knights in scoring with 11 and 8, respectively.

“It was a personal game, we had to take it personal because we had to dig deep,” Matthews said. “We had to play defense.”

Bremerton built on its lead at the beginning of the second half with Matthews and Taylor scoring at will for the Knights, giving themselves a 45-38 lead in the middle portion of the third quarter.

Taylor drove in the paint to give the Knights their first double-digit lead of the game at 48-38, continuing to limit the Roughriders to ten points scored in the third.

Taylor kicked off the scoring for the Knights at the beginning of the fourth quarter, scoring four consecutive points off contested layups and increasing their lead to 14 at 56-42.

Matthews sank a fadeaway jumper, keeping the Knights’ advantage to multiple possessions with under a minute remaining. Taylor ended the night with 29 points, while Matthews tallied 17.

“It wasn’t our best defensive game,” Matthews said. “If we picked up the defense, I feel the game would have been a lot different.”