In the fourth quarter the Newport Knights boys basketball team cut the Issaquah Eagles lead to seven points on three different occasions.

Issaquah then outscored Newport 10-4 in the final four minutes of play en route to a 58-45 win on Jan. 13 at Issaquah High School. The Eagles improved their overall record to 9-5 with the win while Newport dropped to 5-8. Newport forward Matt McCord, who scored 12 points in the contest, recorded a field goal with five minutes left in regulation, slicing Issaquah’s lead to 46-39. On the Knights’ next offensive possession, McCord scored another basket cutting Issaquah’s lead to 48-41 with four minutes left in the game.

The Knights never got any closer as the Eagles held on for the victory.

Newport head coach Rob Marlow, who is in his second season as the Knights leader on the bench, was beaming with pride following the game despite the comeback bid coming up short. The Knights trailed the Eagles by 15 points (36-21) in the third quarter but battled their way back.

“When you play hard on every possession it gives you a shot to win. It doesn’t mean you are going to win, but all I can ask for as a coach is that they are playing hard and are giving it their best shot every possession. One thing I preach to my guys is that you can’t control anything other than what you are doing. You can control crashing the glass every time, blocking out every possession and talking on defense. You can’t control if other guys are just flat out knocking down tough shots,” Marlow said. “Our focus these last six games is to continue to play tough and continue to try to get better game by game.”

Eagles’ post player Brent Wilson scored a team-high 12 points for the Eagles in the win. Tanner Davis added 11 points and sophomore Bijon Sidhu chipped in nine points against the Knights. Wilson scored the Eagles first two points of the game in the first quarter with an electrifying two-handed dunk which resulted in a rousing roar from the hometown crowd. Wilson said the Eagles buckled down their defense down the stretch to preserve the win.

“I think that we just played really hard. We decided that we’re going to win this game no matter what,” Wilson said. “We had some really good plays called by the coaching staff. We just played really well as a team. We knew where each other were going to be.”