LETTS

The early season success for the Highland Girls Basketball team kept rolling last Tuesday night in Letts, Iowa, when the Huskies toppled the Louisa-Muscatine Falcons by a score of 31-21. 

After a tight first half that saw the home Falcons ahead by just one point, Highland used a 13-point third quarter to give them the lead.

Clamping down on defense, the visiting Huskies added another eight points to their total in the fourth quarter while only giving up three to the Falcons, securing a road conference win. 

“The story of our year right now, bend but don’t break,” Highland coach Jody Fink said. “Defensively we are playing fine but still have areas of improvement to make.”

Sarah Burton continued her fast start to her senior season, contributing 22 points to her team’s tally while also grabbing 18 rebounds. Fellow Senior Stella Slaymaker put up five points, while junior Katie Herrig had four assists.

After the success in the girls game, the Highland boys tried to nab their first win of the season against the Falcons. Unfortunately for the Huskies, they couldn’t quite seem to stop the nosebleed that was Falcon Senior Ty Northup. 

Accounting for more than half of his team’s points, Northup was virtually unstoppable, scoring 36 points, collecting eight rebounds, and providing four assists. 

The hot shooting of Northup was more than enough to give the Falcons a 67-41 home victory over the Huskies. Even with the loss, Highland put up the most points in a game this season to date. Senior Center Nicolas Oriano posted 16 points and 10 rebounds while Junior Logan McFarland offered eight points. 

Pekin Recaps

After a win on the road earlier in the week against Louisa-Muscatine, the Highland Girls Basketball team returned home to welcome the Pekin Lady Panthers in a Southeast Iowa Super Conference showdown. 

Much like three nights previous, Highland strung together two solid opening quarters on both offense and defense to take a 17-9 lead into halftime. Before his team took the floor in the second half, Head Coach Jody Fink could be heard telling his team, “16 more minutes!”

The team must have heard that message.

Powered by stiff defense and Sarah Burton’s 12 points, the Huskies cruised to a 36-11 conference victory over the Lady Panthers. 

Highland starters provided 17 points, but the breakout story of the night belonged to Freshman Katelyn Thomann and the rest of the Huskie bench. Thomann had 9 points, all from beyond the arc. 

“Katelyn Thomann did a great job being a threat and hitting three perimeter shots for us,” coach Fink said. “The more experience she can get to slow the game down the better she will be after Christmas and a huge part of the process she will be.”

Fellow Freshman Hailey Brun splashed in two buckets, one from three, and Freshman Mackenzie Davis tacked on three more points. Highland’s five starters had the same number of points (17) as the freshman trio of Thomann, Brun, and Davis.

The future is bright for Highland Girls Basketball.

High off of watching their girls team notch a dominant victory, Highland fans applauded as their boys team took the court, hoping for their first taste of glory in this early season. 

Little did they know, the mood would turn sour once the ball was tipped. Keeping things close within the first few minutes, Pekin quickly took firm control of the game as they led by 32 at halftime, just three points short of a running clock. 

Shortly after the second half began, the running clock started when Highland fell behind by the needed 35-point margin. It would run until the end of regulation.

Turnovers, hot Panther shooting, and an inability to keep up on the scoreboard did the home Huskies in. When the clock hit all zeros, the final score displayed 75-14 in favor of Pekin. The Huskies were led by Junior Colton Sypherd with four points.

Coaches often say, “flush it,” “forget it,” or “move on” after games similar to the one that played out last Friday night in Riverside. Head Coach Bill Zywiec’s team likely has to think exactly the same if they want to see success moving forward.

Both the Highland Girls (6-1) and Boys (0-4) travel to WACO High School on Tuesday, December 12th before two home contests on Friday, December 15th and Saturday, December 16th against Wapello and English Valleys respectively.