The Knoxville Girls Basketball Squad raced out of the gates and won 16 of their first 17 games this past season. The only blemish in that stretch was an 11 point loss to then number four ranked Carlisle, who ended up in the semi-finals of last week’s class 4A state tournament. Panthers Coach Jim Uitermarkt tells KNIA/KRLS he was confident that the first part of the season would go well just because his girls were usually the better team. He says he was worried about the last stretch of games with Little Hawkeye Conference opponents the last four games. The Panthers went four-and-three against the Little Hawkeye Conference this season playing everyone at least once with the exception of Norwalk, whom they did not play this year.