After playing a preseason game on Tuesday, the Knoxville Girls Basketball Squad tips things off for real tonight against its long-time rivals along Highway 14 PCM. The Panthers rolled over Ottumwa last Tuesday in the Pride Scrimmage 49-30 with three girls getting into double figures. Fans saw the Panthers employ a pressure style defense and full court press for most of the first half last week and First Year Head Coach Matt Ritchhart tells KNIA/KRLS Sports the game plan is to turn up the defense and create turnovers for easy points.

Ritchhart: “We are playing a new pressure defense, it’s man-to-man, but it’s pressure. We also want to hold the score down, but we don’t want to slow it down, we want to get out and go and get points in transition.”

Ritchhart adds the team will need to be more balanced on offense this season with the graduation of arguably the two best players in program history graduating the last two seasons. PCM comes in already having played a regular season game, against Chariton on Saturday where the Mustangs dropped a 54-32 decision. The Mustangs are also led by a first year coach in Sami Allison-Rodriguez. Listen for live coverage on 95.3 starting at 7:15, audio will also be provided on the K-H-S Activities You Tube Channel.