RIVERSIDE

A late fourth quarter comeback for the English Valleys Bears came up a little bit short, as the Huskies held firm on defense to collect their first win of the season. 

On their home court the Huskies ended an 18-game losing streak that stretched back to last season, by defeating English Valleys, 49-46, on Dec. 16. 

This was Highland’s first home win since 2022. Last year Highland only won one game, but it was on the road and coincidentally it was also against English Valleys. 

Highland saw offensive production from multiple players in the first frame. 

The Huskies began the game with a 9-2 run and four different players contributed to that run. By the end of the first quarter six Huskies made at least one successful field goal. 

“We don’t have a kid that’s going to go off and score 30 a night for us. We have to do it as a team, not just looking at our scoreboard,” coach Zywiec said. “And I think it was pretty consistent all the way down with our scoring, which I like to see. It makes us more of a complete team that way.”

The second quarter began with the game knotted up at 15-15, but this was the frame where Highland was able to find some separation from the Bears. 

Highland outscored English Valleys to head into halftime with a six-point lead and two big shots by freshmen Landon Roling, a three-pointer, and Jacob Schneider, a two-pointer, helped cement that lead. 

“We had some kids step up today, play well for some younger kids, come off the bench early in that second quarter and I thought that really helped us before halftime,” coach Zywiec said. 

The third frame was a low scoring period for both teams, setting up a final frame where Highland was still in the lead by six. 

“I think we found our identity on the defensive end, but we got to find our offensive identity on what we can run well to put us in the position to score points,” coach Zywiec said.   

Highland was able to extend its lead to 11 with little time remaining but the Bears would not go down quietly. 

Thanks to some untimely turnovers and three-point shooting, English Valleys whittled down their deficit to three points with about 12 seconds left in the game. 

“I thought we were unselfish with the ball. We really got it moving, first half we did a nice job of not turning it over. That’s been one of our Achilles heels,” coach Zywiec said. “Second half we got a little bit more shaky with the ball, but we held our composure there late when they hit a couple of threes.” 

The Bears had a chance to send the game into overtime, but they missed the potential game tying three-pointer and Highland senior Nicolas Oriano grabbed the rebound, his team leading ninth rebound of the game. 

“It’s always tough when you haven’t been winning to get that first one and then it seems like you always find a way to lose it and fortunately, we didn’t do that tonight,” Highland coach Bill Zywiec said. 

Juniors Logan McFarland and Colten Syphred both scored nine to lead Highland in points. In addition to leading the team in rebounds, Oriano also scored eight. 

The Huskies went on the road and battled the Winfield-Mt Union Wolves on Dec. 19. Up next for Highland (1-6), after a break for the holidays, is a home game against the Columbus Wildcats (1-6) on Jan. 2.