The thing Hempfield boys' basketball coach Warren Goodling likes most about his team to this point in the season — a season that has seen the Knights get off to an 8-1 start — is its balance.

He was just as thrilled at the way they reacted when knocked off-balance Saturday night in the championship game of their own tournament.

Challenged when South Philadelphia jumped out of its customary zone defense and went man-to-man early in the second half, the Knights regained their footing en route to a 60-49 victory, their eighth in a row since dropping their season opener to undefeated Eastern.

Chris Yoder and Christian Walck, both named to the all-tournament team, scored 14 and 13 points, respectively, to pace the Knights. And it was those two players who provided the critical baskets after the Rams (5-6) sliced a 27-18 halftime deficit to 27-25 by scoring the first seven points of the third quarter.

First Yoder, who made three 3-pointers in the first half, pump-faked a defender flying at him as he squared up from the arc in the left corner, took a dribble or two and nailed a baseline jumper. Then Walck converted a steal into a layup.

There would be other challenges, as when the Rams cut the gap to three later in the period. But the Knights went on an 11-2 spree featuring four of Brendan McCandless' 10 points.

McCandless had his other six in a 9-1 fourth-quarter run, after Southern had made it a 46-41 game.

But the early moments of the second half were as anxious as any for Goodling and Co. Throughout the first half he had watched his team dissect the Rams' defense, which he described as a "Philadelphia-style zone."

Sometimes it looked like a 3-2, sometimes a 1-3-1, sometimes even a 2-3.

But no matter: The Knights were getting good shots, and usually converting.

Hence the 27-18 lead at the break.

But the second half started, and the visitors came out playing man. That led to turnovers on each of Hempfield's first three possessions, which in turn fueled the 7-0 surge — two field goals by Southern guard Deshon Minnis sandwiched around a three-point play by forward Jamir Hanner, who led all scorers with 21.

Goodling, who had called a timeout 25 seconds into the half, was compelled to call another, this of the 30-second variety, after Minnis' second hoop, with 6:35 left in the period.

"I didn't like the way the first half closed up (with a basket in the closing seconds by the Rams' Haywood Henderson)," Goodling said. "I knew they were going to make some kind of run, but I didn't want us to play tentative. I wanted us to attack. I wanted us to play with confidence."

Which they eventually did.

"We had them on the brink," Southern coach George Anderson said, "but we couldn't capitalize. A lot of that had to do with their composure. What happened was, offensively we did some clunkers. A couple guys went one-on-one and forgot to be patient, we gave them some easy baskets and they got back on track."

Anderson said he changed up defenses because he "realized that that team was too well-coached to just stick in a zone. We didn't have a choice."

And, he added, "Athletically we can play man."

But in Public League play, zone is the preferred option.

"In Philadelphia," Anderson said, "they don't to a lot of screening or backdoor cutting, like these guys. ... They did what they had to do to win.

"I told our guys they didn't lose to a bad team; they lost to a good team.

"We may well see them in the [state] playoffs, if we get to the playoffs."

Note: Hanner and Minnis also made the all-tournament team, as did Hempfield's Matt Donato.