Brutal would be the way to describe the early to mid-January schedule for the Knoxville Girls Basketball Squad. After conference games at home with Centerville on Tuesday and Albia next Friday, the Panthers run a gauntlet of opponents that features Newton from the Little Hawkeye Conference, a road game with Creston, a road conference game at Clarke, followed by back-to-back home games with two of the top five ranked teams in class 4A, all by January 17th. Coach Jim Uitermarkt tells KNIA/KRLS they have used the break to continue to improve and hopes to come out of break on a high note. The Panthers will start a stretch of games that they play Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday the first three weeks of January starting this Tuesday at home against Centerville.