Robbinsville, NC- The Robbinsville Lady Knights played host to the Chatham Charter Knights in the first round of the NCHSAA 1A State Playoffs.

The Lady Knights handled Chatham Charter with ease, winning 78-43  behind Desta Trammell’s game high 29 points.

Kinsley Phillips also played a big part offensively scoring 15, while Gabby Hooper and Yeika Yimenz both had 8 a piece.

I had the chance to catch up with Knights Head Coach Lucas Ford after the game and here’s what he had to say:

The more minutes we play, the more experience these girls get. The girls did a good job coming out of the break. At halftime we had 10 rebounds, and we usually average 16 rebounds a quarter. So I didn’t really feel like we were getting after it defensively, and defense is what this team is built on. I wrote on the big board in the lockerroom “DEFENSE” because that’s why we are we are right now. We usually play very sound defense and get after it and rebound and I just didn’t see that in the first half. But once they locked in defensively and we got our press going to start the second half, we were able to push the tempo and stretch our lead out. Second half we really cleared some stuff up and played like we are capable.

The Knights are now set to travel to East Surry on Thursday, to play the Number 1 seed East Surry Cardinals.

Robbinsville heads into Thursdays contest ranked 3rd in all of 1A, facing an undefeated East Surry team that’s ranked 6th in the state.

The Knights will have to slow down Dasia Lambert if they want to have a chance at playing on Saturday in the Elite 8. Lambert is the Cards leading scorer and ball handler who averages 16.4 points per game.