By Kim J. Harmon

Through the first 12 minutes or so of the Intermediate Boys semifinal between the Knicks and the Wildcats last Saturday at the Reed Intermediate School, it was pretty clear that things could go either way.

Until Tom Anderau hit a fadeway shot from about eight feet.

Until John Johnson stole the ball and comverted a layup.

Until the Knicks took a 12-11 lead (late in the second period) and transformed it into a 23-11 lead (early in the third period). That 11-0 run provided the proper impetus and sent the Knicks on their way to a 41-23 win and placed them in the Intermediate Boys championship game on Wednesday night against the Bullets (see related story).

It was nip and tuck right from the opening tipoff as Johnson put the Knicks ahead early with a drive to the basket. But the ‘Cats got started as Brandon Body and Chris Haylon canned back-to-back baskets to hand the Wildcats the 4-2 lead.

From there, the first period was back and forth.

First it was the Knicks (Anderau).

Then it was the Wildcats (Max Brazo).

Then Knicks (John Wlasuk) … and then Wildcats (Brazo).

When the first period ended, the ‘Cats held a narrow 8-6 lead. That lead expanded a bit when Kevin Dennis hit 1-of-2 free throws … but that was before Johnson canned a reverse layup and Erik Samuelson popped in a rim-rattler from near the free throw line.

Samuelson’s basket put the Knicks on top, 10-9, and it was the final lead change of the game.

Johnson added another basket and Patrick Sullivan answered back with a bucket for the Wildcats. But the second period closed when Anderau hit his fadeaway basket and Johnson added the steal and layup to put the Knicks on top 16-11.

Halftime did nothing to diminish the roll the Knicks had gotten on to. Wlasuk popped in two buckets (one on a runner in the lane; the other on a putback) and Anderau added another basket to stake the Knicks to a 23-11 lead.

The Wildcats finally stopped the run and then chopped that lead in half on baskets by Haylon, Brazo and Sullivan. The rest of the third period was a tradeoff with Wlasuk scoring five more points for the Knicks and Sullivan and Body hitting buckets for the ‘Cats.

The Knicks were on top by seven, 28-21, entering the fourth period.

And that was when they put the game away.

The Knicks expanded the lead to 14 points on baskets by Samuelson and Dan White and free throws by Russo (1-of-2) and White (2-of-2). Brazo snapped the run with a basket for the Wildcats but the Knicks closed out the game on a 6-0 run on buckets from Ashinay Tyagarajan, White and Anderau.

Wlasuk led the Knicks with 11 points while Johnson and Andereau chipped in with eight points apiece. Brazo canned eight points for the Wildcats while Sullivan added six and Haylon and Body chipped in with four points apiece.

KNICKS (41) – John Wlasuk 11, John Johnson 8, Tom Anderau 8, Dan White 6, Erik Samuelson 4, Ashinay Tyagarajan 2, Jimmy Russo 1. WILDCATS (23) – Max Brazo 8, Patrick Sullivan 6, Chris Haylon 4, Brandon Body 4, Kevin Dennis 1.