Be more confident. That was coach Jennifer Kruse's advice to Gilbert Christian going into Friday's game against Horizon after back-to-back losses.

The Lady Knights (16-9) listened, opening the game on an 18-0 run en route to a 52-34 victory.

“They had nobody in the corners so I would just run there. They were all pinched in,” said senior Gwyneth Finkbeiner, who scored 13 points in the first quarter. "Actually pregame we talked and our coach told us to just fire up threes.”

Said Kruse: “We know we have shooters. We just have to instill some confidence in them and they need to shoot.”

Horizon trailed 24-3 atfter the first quarter but didn't quit. Horizon cut the lead to 16 at halftime.

The Lady Knights had to fend off run after run but answered every time. 

“The game is 32 minutes,” said Kruse. "You can’t win a game in eight minutes and we needed to persevere and learn to push through the whole time.”

Junior Landyn Lovelady is one of four upperclassmen and attributes that to her calm demeanor on the court. She is averaging almost 13 points, 3.7 assists, 4.9 steals per game.

She is also a multi-sport athlete starting on the Gilbert Christian soccer team, which has its first playoff game Feb. 6. 

When asked which sport she will play when it comes to the playoffs Lovelady said, “They don’t conflict until the second week of the playoffs and if it comes down to that I will have a meeting with both coaches.”

Lovelady goes to basketball practice Monday through Friday and to soccer practice on Wednesdays.

“We will be watching a lot of film to prepare,” said Kruse about the playoffs "We are a very young team with not a lot of playoff experience, and hopefully this is our new normal right here and we play like this every night.”