LaPorta, Brown propel Highland past Jerseyville for regional championship
Bella LaPorta and Ellie Brown made sure Highland’s girls basketball team would not suffer another one and done in the regional playoffs.
On Thursday night, LaPorta’s inside work and Brown’s outside work in the backcourt powered an early surge and late third-quarter run that propelled Highland to a 51-31 victory over Jerseyville in a Class 3A regional championship game at Jerseyville.
Highland (25-7) moves onto the Effingham Sectional where it will face Mount Vernon (18-14) at 6 p.m. Monday. The Lady Bulldogs will compete in the sectional semifinals for the first time since 2017 when they played at Breese Central.
This was a much different game for HHS than two weeks ago when Jerseyville — which finished the season 24-7 — knocked off the Lady Bulldogs 60-56.
“We played really well tonight and defensively, we only gave up 31 points against a team that scores a lot of points, so we came out and did a good job of keeping the ball in the lanes, we contested their shots and just made everything difficult,” Highland coach Clint Hamilton said.
Highland struggled to score in the first half but thanks to its outstanding defense still led 19-12 lead at intermission.
In the third quarter, LaPorta, who scored 12 points, and Brown, who also scored 12 points, got the Lady Bulldogs offense rolling. Highland erupted for 19 third-quarter points and took a commanding 38-24 lead into the fourth quarter that for all intents and purposes stopped the Panthers in their tracks.
“We had a big third quarter as we scored 19 in the third quarter and went out to a 14-point lead going into the fourth quarter,” Hamilton said.
Senior forward Ashlyn Klucker came up big on the defensive end, frustrating Jerseyville’s leading scorer Claire Breden into just 14 points. The Lady Bulldogs suffocating man-to-man defense limited Abby Manns, the Panthers other top scorer, to just four points.
Highland junior guard Kirsten Taylor added 10 points.
The Lady Bulldogs enter the sectional semifinals looking to win for the 11th time in 12 games and extend their postseason run.
“I hope so,” Hamilton said of the Lady Bulldogs postseason start. “We’ll be at Effingham on Monday and we’ll play Mount Vernon over there so we’ll try to get another one that night and hopefully see if we can’t move on to the sectional finals.”