Brown, Kronk power Highland past Mascoutah in Senior Night finale

Highland senior guard Ellie Brown and Megan Kronk had just two things on their minds heading into the regular-season finale Thursday, Feb. 13.

Playing well and getting a win.

Both of those goals were accomplished in short order thanks in large parts to the senior backcourt mates.

Kronk scored a team-high 13 points and Brown added 12 points as Highland jumped to a 12-point led in the first quarter, led by 23 points at half and rolled to a 74-30 victory on Senior Night at Highland High School.

For Brown, it was a perfect way to close out their final regular-season home game as Lady Bulldogs.

“It (being the final regular-season game) for sure hit me starting my first game on this court to (now) starting my last game on this court,” Brown said. “It’s a great feeling and hopefully we can carry that momentum into the postseason. We played well tonight I thought.”

Leading by 12 after one quarter, Highland (23-7, 7-3) started pulling away in the second quarter as Bella LaPorta scored eight of her 10 points to push the lead to 44-21 at halftime.

“I think honestly we just had to pick our intensity up a lot more and we had to start to get in the flow of things,” Kronk said. “We began to run the offensive sets through more than one time and then we could execute the reversals on those first sets.”

Highland coach Clint Hamilton agreed with Kronk that the Lady Bulldogs seemed to get their A-game going in the second quarter.

“The second quarter we kind of got it going a little bit and made some shots, forced some turnovers,” Hamilton said.

In the third quarter, Kronk, Brown, and Kirsten Taylor knocked down shots as the lead swelled to 64-28.

“In the third quarter, that’s kind of become our honey hole lately where we pull away, so yeah that was a big third quarter for us,” Hamilton said.

That prompted Hamilton to pull Brown, Kronk, Maddie Clarke, and Ashlyn Klucker from the game as the enthusiastic HHS crowd gave the four seniors a rousing ovation.

Kronk said getting big runs like the third-quarter surge is always fun and their most preferred method of executing on the court.

“I think the best part about it is we’ve always been able to play really fast and run up and down the floor. And the more we can do that, it creates a better flow and the ball moves where we want it to go and things work out for us,” Kronk said.

Lady Bulldogs look to continue surge in postseason

Highland, winners of eight of their last nine games, will look to keep things rolling in the postseason at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 18, when they travel to Jerseyville to face seventh-seeded Taylorville in an IHSA Class 3A regional semifinal. HHS enters the regional as the No. 2 seed.

“We’ve been executing our (sets) real well and the kids have been shooting with confidence,” Hamilton said. “But defensively, we have to execute a little better and rebound a little better.”

Playing her last game as a Lady Bulldog definitely left Kronk feeling emotional and she hopes HHS will be playing a few more weeks.

“It hit me a little bit earlier today but then after the (final) buzzer sounded it kind of hit me a little harder and I definitely had tears, but it’s not over yet,” Kronk said. “I feel like next week we need to make sure we’re all checking in and bring it every single time we’re going into a game.”

Sophia Loden paced Mascoutah (5-24, 1-9 in the MVC) with a game-high 16 points.

This story was originally published February 14, 2020 at 12:26 PM.