With less than two minutes to go, it looked like King’s was in position to pull off its third win in three games against Class 3A opposition this season.

The Knights cut into a 14-point deficit to draw within a basket of Newport before the Kingco power sealed a 61-58 boys basketball win with a late 3-pointer and a pair of offensive rebounds.

Newport found a few seams in King’s full-court press and bolted to a 12-point first-quarter lead in the Jan. 4 non-league contest.

“They got about 10 or 12 points before we pulled back and we never gained it all back,” King’s coach Marv Morris said.

Ben Pawlak scored 16 of his 18 points in the second half and Chris Faidley also finished with 18 points to lead the two-time defending Class A state champs.

The Knights defeated Lakeside and Liberty at the start of the season and have one more 3A foe remaining on their schedule in Skyline.

But Morris doesn’t anticipate anyone will push King’s as much as Newport, a state qualifier a year ago.

“I just don’t see us playing anybody better than they are,” Morris said. “They’re very well organized and they handle the ball well. They’ve got really good shooters outside and they do good stuff inside.”

Over the holiday break, the Knights picked up two wins at a tournament in Hawaii. Their only loss came to eventual champion St. Louis School (Honolulu).

King’s was ahead of St. Louis by six with six minutes to go but was whistled for several fouls, which allowed the Crusaders to come back for a 57-52 victory. With a brawny lineup full of holdovers from the school’s state championship football team, St. Louis relied on its size to overpower the Knights.

“It was super for us to play a team we couldn’t move,” Morris said.

King’s remained unbeaten in Chinook League play with a 62-41 win over Tacoma Baptist Tuesday night and travels to Auburn Adventist tonight.

A tough stretch of games awaits the Knights (3-0 league, 7-3 overall) over the next two weeks, beginning with a rematch of last season’s state championship game Jan. 14 at Seattle Christian.

Encounters with Bellevue Christian and Skyline follow.

“We have a good chance to be 4-0 in league at the end of this week,” Morris said. “If we could do that, that would be a good start.”