KNIGHTDALE - Girls basketball coach Anthony Byrd was into trying new things Tuesday night as the Lady Knights slipped past Heritage 41-38.

He said some of his key players had come down with the complacency bug, so he started Deanna Quarterly, Brittany Westmoreland and Shecora Cooper in place of Amber Wright, Nicollette Neal and Kristen Maiden.

Despite the Huskies taking the early lead and rallying to within tying distance in the final seconds of the game, Byrd held to his decision to give his reserves more time on the court.

“I’m expecting more out of our starters,” Byrd said. “We as coaches had to look into some different things and do some stuff different. I’m just not satisfied with what we have going on right now and we’ve got a lot of work to do.”

The Knightdale offense clicked after starters subbed in halfway through the first quarter, resulting in a 13-6 lead after that period and 31-17 lead at the half.

Heritage turned what looked to be a folding situation into a close game in the second half.

“They wanted it more,” Byrd said. “They came into our gym ready to play hard with nothing to lose. I take my hat off to that. They played hard.”

The Huskies held the Knights to 3 points in the third quarter and pulled to within 3, 34-31, with five minutes left in the game.

Heritage’s Nakhyla Powell stole a Knightdale inbound pass and drove the lane for a layup to stay within 3, 39-36, at the one-minute mark.

In the final minute, Knightdale guard Ajee Smith drew a foul but missed from the charity line. Maiden stole the ensuing Husky inbound and drew another foul, but also missed the target. Brown rebounded Maiden’s miss for a putback and the 41-36 lead with 12 seconds to play, securing the win.

“Heritage came out and played hard,” Byrd said. “Them being a young program, you go out there and it’s easy to take some things lightly. I talked to the girls about that before the game and that’s still what we did.”

Heritage was led by Jaysia Brown with 11 points, followed by Powell with 10, Tailah Joyner with 9, Kailah Kearney with 5 and Erin Gerber with 3.

Knightdale was led by Smith and Khadedra Taylor with 7 points each, followed by Wright with 6, Maiden and Lovely Locklear with 5 points each, Brown with 4, Westmoreland, Quarterly and Tenneale Jackson with 2 points each, and Neal with 1.