Wilke, Highland girls basketball rolls past short-handed Belleville West for road win

Grace Wilke and the Highland Lady Bulldogs suffered a 33-point loss to Belleville West last season at home.

And Wilke and her teammates had this season’s match-up with the Maroons circled on the calendar at the start of the 2022-23 campaign as a shot at redemption.

Highland checked that task off its list Monday, Dec. 5, as Wilke, Larissa Taylor, and Lauren Maas scored in double figures, helping the Lady Bullodgs roll past an injury-depleted West club 57-44 at Belleville West.

It was another productive night on the court for red-hot Highland (9-1), which won six-straight games to start the season.

“We were just talking about the score (from last year), and it feels good to win,” Wilke said.

Both teams came out tight on offense, but West managed to grab a 10-8 lead at the end of the first quarter on a Lauren King 3-pointer.

Highland’s offense started to pick up in the second quarter as a Maas bucket keyed a 5-0 run and gave the Lady Bulldogs a 26-21 halftime advantage.

“We just didn’t make any shots in the first half,” Highland coach Clint Hamilton said. “We got looks, and they just weren’t there and at the end of the second quarter Lauren Mass had a little run by herself, so she really kind of got us going into halftime.”

Midway through the third quarter, Highland’s balanced offense began to click as a Taylor basket and a Maas backdoor two kicked off a 9-0 surge that pushed the lead 35-24. A pair of Taylor free-throws grew the margin to 52-36 with just over five minutes remaining in the game and the Lady Bulldogs never looked back.

Wilke, who started the first half with just seven points, broke loose in the second half for 14 points and finished with a game-high 21 including a three-ball.

“They (the shots) weren’t falling in the first half and confidence goes down a little bit, but once you hit that first one, it goes right back up. And it felt good ... we had everyone in their positions, and I felt like that helped a lot,” Wilke said.

Maas added 13 points and Taylor finished with 10 as Highland’s balanced scoring once again paid big dividends.

“Any given night we’ve got three or four or five kids that can get in double figures so I feel like we’re a tough team to prepare for,” Hamilton said.

Thoughts from Maroons coach

For Belleville West (0-5), just finding consistent scoring and getting a win has been challenging early, as three starters have been lost to injuries, including senior standouts Jalynn Rook and Maliah Sparks. Rook and Sparks were big contributors in the Maroons’ 2021-22 campaign.

“We’re behind the 8-ball when you’ve got three or four starters out and there’s not much you can do,” Maroons coach Clayton Fisher said. “The girls played hard, so I’m happy with that. We did a lot of good things and our defense was not where I wanted it to be, but give Highland credit. They’re very good.

“Our goal is to play well and we know with the competition we play, there’s no gimmes and we’ve just got to do our best with that.”

Lady Bulldogs soaring

Meanwhile, Highland has already won one game more than it did all of last season just 10 contests into this winter.

“I don’t know really what I was expecting (this year) ... I knew it would be a lot better than last year. It feels good to be 9-1, but we have a lot to work on and get better at,” Wilke said.

M’Riya Johnson paced Belleville West with 10 points. J’La Sparks scored 8 points.

This story was originally published December 6, 2022 at 9:03 AM.