Being one of the favorites to win the Class A private state championship are expectations welcomed by St. Francis High.

It also needs to understand two things: 1) the Knights need to improve with every game; 2) teams will come at them from every angle with their best shot.

On Saturday, St. Francis experienced both in an 81-40 win over Hiram in the Verizon Hoop for the Cure Showcase. It was a game where the Knights had to battle through some physical play.

St. Francis (2-0) jumped out fast as its offense put its foot down and did not stop scoring since the opening tip. The Knights pushed the tempo igniting one fast break after another. One of its better highlights came from reserve Nathan Waller. This 6-foot-2 forward slammed home a missed shot, which surprised everyone in attendance.

Everything just clicked for St. Francis.

“We want to improve defensively every game,” Knights coach Cabral Huff said. “I thought we accomplished that. We got after it.”

St. Francis’ defense was relentless as it forced turnovers, missed shots and a lot of frustration for a Hiram team looking to pull off an upset. The Hornets had issues getting around and over the outstretched arms of the Knights defense.

Sophomore Kobi Simmons started a lot of it off deflection passes and getting out in the open floor for easy baskets. However, the 6-foot-5 guard was not just about getting his productions, he found distributed the ball to open teammates. Simmons finished with 18 points, mostly in the first-half, and five assists.

Junior forward Kaiser Gates picked up the scoring load in the second and third quarter to finish with a game-high 23 points, 12 rebounds and three assists.

However, while the Gates-Simmons show is nothing new for the Knights, Huff was impressed with something that comes with experience. The game was physical from the beginning that ended with intentional and technical fouls against Hiram. Both times the physical targets were Gates and Simmons.

In the past, Huff knows his team would have reacted differently than it did this time around.

“What I’ve liked about them is their maturity,” he said. “Last year, they would’ve reacted differently. This year, they are not going to let that bother us.”

Malik Beasley finished with five steals and McKinley Brown had seven assists to lead the Knights.