Highland girls roll past Greenville at Highland Optimist Scott Credit Union Shootout
Two days after getting a big lead at Breese Central and losing in overtime, the Highland Lady Bulldogs were determined not to let it happen again.
On Saturday, the Lady Bulldogs took a nine-point lead into the fourth quarter against Greenville and used a nine-point run to start the period and pull away for a 58-40 win in the first game of the first session of the Scott Credit Union Highland Optimist Shootout at Highland High School.
It was the perfect bounce-back for the Lady Bulldogs, who dropped a 47-45 heartbreaker to Breese Central on Thursday night.
“We’ve got a lot of seniors who have played a lot of and juniors on this team that have played a lot of varsity basketball and they were ready to get back to the gym and start playing again because it was a frustrating loss,” Highland coach Clint Hamilton said.
Highland (14-5) came out red-hot early as Megan Kronk scored the first five points with a bucket and a three-ball for a 5-0 lead.
Kirsten Taylor and Ellie Brown added baskets to stretch the led to 9-0, forcing the Comets to use a timeout to regroup with 4:46 left in the first quarter.
A pair of Bella LaPorta free-throws stretched the lead to 24-12 with 1:40 left in the first half. LaPorta, who has been strong offensively in recent games, had another big day as she outplayed Greenville’s 6-4 post player Megan Hallemann, scoring a team-high 16 points.
“She plays hard and she’s got a nose for the ball and is very physical, runs the floor well in transition and gets a lot of offensive rebounds,” Hamilton said. “She’s kind of taken a step up for us and we need that because sometimes we struggle to score off the perimeter.”
When LaPorta was not knocking down shots, Brown had her stroke going as well.
Brown, who started off slow in the first quarter, broke loose over the final three quarters, finishing with 15 points, 11 rebounds and three assists. Her performance earned her the game MVP award.
“I think we moved the ball a little bit quicker and started looking for the open person and they (the shots) started to fall,” Brown said.
A 9-3 run kickstarted by a LaPorta bucket pushed the Lady Bulldogs to a 46-33 lead and they never looked back.
“That Breese Central loss was tough and coach said the second half, we need to be able to come out and bury a team and that was our mindset going into the second half,” Brown said.
Taylor added 11 points. Greenville dropped to 14-6.
Highland returns to action at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 14, with a Mississippi Valley Conference road game at Mascoutah.
This story was originally published January 11, 2020 at 3:36 PM.