Doc Cornell hadn’t coached a youth boys team in eight years when he took over the Pryme-Tyme 14-under boys team this summer.

The Pryme-Tyme Knights, a 12-member summer youth basketball traveling team consisting of boys from Rockford, Winnebago and Savanna, surprised Cornell and made believers out of themselves playing against some of the best teams in the country.

The Knights finished second at the United States Specialty Sports Association National Championship in Fort Wayne, Ind. The team finished 5-2 in the tournament and lost 62-55 in the title game against Spiece Select 2012.

The Knights lost 68-38 to Spiece Select 2012 earlier during pool play.

“We were playing around that first game,” forward Javauntae Hicks said. “We came back ready to play that second time.”

Marquez Beeks, a member of West Middle School’s city championship team this spring, said the Knights — one of two Illinois teams in the event — were one of the smallest teams in the 36-team field.  

“It was a dream come true for us to get to the championship game,” Beeks said. “The team we played in the championship was bigger than us. Everybody underestimated us. We made it close that second time.”

Cornell, who started the Pryme-Tyme Youth Organization in 1992, said he got back to coaching the boys because his cousin, Pryme-Tyme guard Fred Van Vleet, traveled out of town for summer games. Over the past eight years, Cornell had been coaching several Pryme-Tyme youth girls teams.