Pen Argyl's size and speed proved to be too much for Palmerton in Monday's 65-38 Colonial League victory, showing that outside of their name and color, these Knights are anything but "green."

The winners, who improved to 2-3 overall, have suffered some hard-fought losses at the hands of Moravian Academy, Southern Lehigh and Bangor.Their victory allowed head coach Kyle Hutnik to enjoy his squad's first league win."Obviously, it was one of our main game plans tonight, to use our size, reach and speed on defense," Hutnik said. "When we come out hard defensively, we get into a flow, turn our defense into offense, and we've been trying to increase the tempo and pace."Their 1-3-1 trap disrupted the locals' half-court sets, allowing for some easy transition points, which produced an early advantage.A 17-6 first-frame lead ballooned to 27-11 at the break, as the senior-heavy Green Knights cruised early. Josh Messerschmidt tallied 10 of his 12 points in that first half, while teammate Timmy Brunstetter added 12 of his team-high 16."I thought Josh Messerchmidt played a wonderful game for us tonight," said Hutnik. "He has a long reach, is 6-4, and as a guard, does a lot of stuff for our offense. Connor Robicheau and Timmy (Brunstetter) are also two big guys that help us out on defense and help us disrupt offenses."Palmerton head coach Ken Termini concurred, saying, "They play their 1-3-1 really well, they were aggressive about it, and we're still trying to learn how to get those kinds of defenses to move the right way so we can take advantage of them. But (Pen Argyl) makes that hard to do and did a good job of taking it to our young guys."With just over three minutes remaining in the third frame, the score was 46-17 following a Max Kukla trey.However, the hosts made some runs and continued to fight behind the effort of sophomore Nate Dougherty, who finished the contest with a game-high 21 points.BY THE NUMBERS ... Pen Argyl, by virtue of some high-percentage shots, finished the night shooting 27-of-54 from the field for a 50 percent clip, while the Blue Bombers were 14-of-42 (33 percent).THAT'S OFFENSIVE ... Pen Argyl's height provided them with a 31-18 rebounding edge in the contest, as 15 of those 31 boards were on the offensive end. Meanwhile, both teams finished with 19 turnovers.KNIGHTLY SWEEP ... In the preliminary game, Pen Argyl took a 40-22 JV win, as seven of their nine players hit the scoring column.PEN ARGYLSampson 1-1-2-3, Strouse 0-0-0-0, Messerschmidt 3-4-4-12, Robicheau 3-0-0-6, Brunstetter 8-0-1-16, J. Clearykojo 0-0-0-0, Kukla 3-0-0-8, Scott 2-0-0-5, T. Clearykojo 3-0-0-6, Barr 0-0-0-0, Hicks 1-0-0-2, Roper 0-1-2-1, Lilly 1-0-0-2, Campano 2-0-0-4, S. Clearykojo 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 27-6-9-65.PALMERTONYacone 2-2-4-6, Dougherty 9-1-2-21, Baumgardt 0-2-2-2, Nelson 1-0-0-2, Frace 0-0-0-0, Suto 2-2-2-6, Hosier 0-0-0-0, Yaindl 0-0-2-0, Silfies 0-1-2-1, Taschler 0-0-0-0, Geigle 0-0-0-0, Quinn 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 14-8-14-38.Pen Argyl 17 10 21 17 - 65Palmerton 6 5 12 15 - 38Three pointers: Pen Argyl - Kukla 2, Messerschmidt 2, Scott 1; Palmerton - Dougherty 2.