Highland girls knock conference rival from ranks of the unbeaten

A strong start bookended by a strong finish helped the Highland girls basketball team hand unbeaten Mississippi Valley Conference foe Civic Memorial on Tuesday night.

Surging Highland, winners of four its last five games, jumped out to a 14-7 first quarter lead and then closed the game on a 10-0 run to knock off CM 54-37 at Civic Memorial in Bethalto.

Highland (7-6, 5-0) moved to the top of the conference race thanks to the win and the Bulldogs now sit atop the conference standings ahead of CM and Triad.

“It’s a big win for a multitude of reasons,” Highland coach Clint Hamilton said. “For conference obviously but then for the postseason being in the same sectional as CM and our (Highland) tournament, there’s just a lot of good things come out of that getting a win versus them.”

Buoyed early by its relentless man to man defense and some timely scoring, HHS jumped out to an early edge going up 14-7 late in the first quarter.

A three-ball by Lauren Maas and a bucket from Jordan Bircher pushed the lead to 27-6 in the second quarter. The Bulldogs carried a 29-22 lead into halftime.

“We got out in transition and got a few defensive stops and CM missed a couple of shots they normally make, and we were able to get the rebound, get out in transition and get some easy baskets and then we made s couple of perimeter shots and that kind of freed us up,” Hamilton said.

Highland controlled the third quarter bit Civic Memorial (11-1, 4-1) made a 6-2 run and pulled within 40-35 on an Avary Combes free throw with a little over four minutes left to go.

Highland, once again leaned on its defense, and the Bulldogs reeled off a 10-2 surge started by a Bircher layup and capped by a pair of Maas free-throws to pull away from the Eagles.

“I think the biggest thing for this game was defensively we were able to do a nice job closing out n their shooters and making offense a little more challenging for them rather than allowing them to just take set shots and our girls did a really good job of digging in defensively, knowing the assignment, and who to guard,” Hamilton said.

Maas led Highland with 13 points. Bircher scored 12 points and Abby Schultz 11 points.

Combes, Marlee Durbin, and Marley Ogden scored 10 points each, leading Civic Memorial.