The odds were stacked against Highland at Montezuma, but the Huskies didn’t back down from the challenge on Tuesday.

Playing without injured point guard Abbi Stransky, the Huskies were still within two points of the Bravettes (18-4) in the third quarter before Montezuma pulled away for a 50-39 win. 

The Huskies won six of their last seven games entering the regional quarterfinal, including a 54-52 overtime win over Lisbon to open the postseason. 

Sophomore Sarah Burton was 8-of-13 for 21 points and 11 rebounds in the loss. 

“The girls came here and they fought and they gave it everything they had,” Highland coach Jody Fink said. “Proud can’t even explain half of how I feel right now.” 

Montezuma possessed the second-best 3-point offense in Class 1A, averaging eight makes per game at a 34 percent clip. At the other end of the court was a top-10 defense, allowing fewer than 34 points per game. The Bravettes had skill and size, with four players of at least 5-foot-10 in the rotation. 

The 5-foot-9 Burton had to work hard for each one of her game-high 21 points. She had all six of the Huskies first-quarter points as Highland cut an early 5-0 Montezuma lead to 7-6. 

Highland trailed 17-10 in the second quarter when Dani Laughlin scored and drew a foul for a 3-point play. Emma Soukup stole the ball and scored to make it 20-15, and Burton’s free throws pulled the Huskies within 20-18 at the half. 

“We worked it around the perimeter there, and we still stayed within our game plan of inside out,” Fink said .”Sarah played huge and we were able to penetrate and get to the free throw line a little bit. Not as much as we wanted to, but the girls just played hard. They left it all out here on the court.”

Huskie turnovers and Montezuma offensive rebounds resulted in a 15-4 advantage for the Bravettes in the third quarter. 

Jessica Kraus hit the Huskies’ only 3-pointer of the game early in the fourth quarter, but the Bravettes responded with their seventh and eighth triples to extend the lead to 45-31. Laughlin and Burton each had a conventional 3-point play to pull within eight with two minutes left, but Montezuma scored its final five from the free throw line. 

Mia Boulton led the Bravettes with 17 points. She added four 3-pointers to her state-leading total of 74 and finished the season shooting over 40 percent from outside. 

Laughlin had eight points and three steals. Soukup had four points, two assists and two steals. Her fellow senior Mackinze Hora had two points and two assists before fouling out late in the game. 

The Huskies had a few players step up and adapt to new roles after Stransky tore an ACL in the previous game. 

“We had to move Sarah around, and she had to become more of a ball handler till we could get down the floor,” Fink said. “Dani had to handle the ball a lot more as a point guard. But otherwise we stayed within what we wanted to do in our program.”

This year, Stransky led the Huskies in points (12.8), steals (3.7), assists (2.9), and blocks (1.9). She grabbed over eight rebounds per game and provided leadership from the point guard position. 

“You take her away and that makes it tough, but we had girls step up,” Fink said. “I mean, they all stepped up. And we’ve just got to take it to the next level. I think tonight shows that they do that. We just have to do it every night.”