Highland girls win 3A Sectional championship for second straight year

The task was anything but easy, but at the end of the night it was all worth it for the Highland girls’ basketball team.

Thanks to some hard-nosed defense and a clutch free throw from Sophia Fleming, Highland is heading back home next week for a date in the IHSA Class 3A Supersectional.

Fleming sank a free throw with 9.6 seconds left and the top-seeded Bulldogs held on for a thrilling 34-31 Class 3A sectional victory over second-seeded Effingham Thursday night at Effingham High School.

Highland (25-10), winners of back-to-back sectional championships for the first time in program history, will return home on Monday at 7 p.m. to host Chatham-Glenwood in a Class 3A supersectional contest and an opportunity to advance to next weekend’s IHSA Class 3A State Tournament in Bloomington-Normal.

“We would have it any other way, would we?” Highland coach Clint Hamilton said. “We must find ways to win ugly basketball games and that’s kind of what it turned into there in the second half. Credit to our girls, they never caved in, dug their heels in, and found ways to make plays and get stops and found a way to win there at the end.”

In a tight defensive first quarter, it was a Sophie Schroeder three-point basket that gave Highland a 7-4 lead late in the first quarter.

A 10-3 run kick started by back-to-back Lauren Maas buckets off steals pushed Highland out to a 17-7 lead with just over two minutes left in the first half.

The Bulldogs added five more points in the final two minutes to take a commanding 22-11 lead into the halftime intermission.

Host Effingham got back into the game in the third quarter thanks to a blistering 14-4 run capped by a Bella Austin driving two, cutting the lead to 26-25 with 3:18 left in the third quarter.

A roll-around driving bucket from Jordan Bircher extended the Bulldogs’ lead to 31-26 with 5:40 left to go.

Bella Austin’s putback basket and a Bria Beals free-throw pulled the Flaming Hearts within 33-31 with 27 seconds left.

Fleming answered, hitting one of two free throws on the other end to make it 34-21 with 96 seconds left.

“Credit to Sophie for stepping up and making that free throw to make it a three-point game,” Hamilton said.

After Fleming missed the second shot, Effingham had one more chance to tie and force overtime but Sidney Donaldson’s contested three-pointer hit long off the back iron, and the Bulldogs celebrated their sectional championship with the Highland student section.

“When they miss and we had to come down and get a defensive stop I feel much more confident in u having to get a defensive stop than having to get a score, so I thought we were in a good spot,” Hamilton said. I honestly thought when it left her hand it had a chance to go in but fortunately, it didn’t and yeah, we walked away with a win.”

Larissa Taylor paced Highland with 9 points and 10 rebounds. Bricher scored 8 points and Maas added six points.

Alyssa Martin led Effingham with 13 points.

Effingham finished its season at 29-5.