WILLIAMSTON — It would be hard to imagine a better start to the postseason than the one Riverside had on Monday as the Knights obliterated Manteo 56-20 in the first round of the NCHSAA 1-A playoffs.
After holding a 2-0 lead for the first few minutes, Riverside (26-1), the No. 1 seed in the East bracket, tightened up the screws on its press and unleashed a 12-point run that spanned 1:30 and would prove to be a punch that the shorthanded Redskins (12-11) would not recover from.
The victory was the first playoff win of first-year coach Kirby Maness’ career and advanced the team to the second round of the playoffs where it will face No. 9 Southeast Halifax (12-10) tonight at home.
“It’s really exciting,” Maness said of the win. “This whole year has gone by so fast and it’s one of those things that once the season is over with I’ll get a chance to take a deep breath and realize how good this team really is.”
The season may go fast but with the way the Knights have been playing it appears they will have plenty of games to play in their future.
On Monday, the Knights’ press and trap game gave wild card entrant Manteo fits and led to several easy buckets, sapping the Bruins of any thoughts of an upset early as they jumped out to a 17-4 lead after Dabrieka Burnett made her second three of the first quarter.
“We were getting the steals but we were missing the layups. We weren’t converting them into points,” Maness said. “Then, all of a sudden we started making those shots and racked up about 12 points in about a minute.”
Point guard Jalyn Brown led the way with a game-high 12 points and did not play in the fourth quarter.
The Knights stormed out to a 19-9 lead at the end of the first but the game got out of hand over the next two quarters as the Bruins were outscored 33-3.
Manteo was held scoreless from midway through the second until halfway through the third and at that point both coaches agreed to run the clock, which included during the intermission between the third and fourth quarters.

Manteo    9    2    1    8    —    20
Riverside    19    19    14    4    —    56
Redskins (20)
Lewis 7, Moran 3, Thomas 1, Booth 6, Morrisette 3
Knights (56)
Burnett 6, Alexander 3, Jalyn Brown 12, Moore 5, Bland 4, Rodgers 9, Williams 7, Wilson 5, Brown 2.