Girls Basketball: HHS battles back to place third at Salem
The Highland High School girls basketball team overcame a four-point deficit in the final 15 seconds to stun Civic Memorial with a 53-51 come-from-behind victory and bag third place Saturday night at the 15th annual Salem Lady Wildcat Thanksgiving Tournament.
The Lady Bulldogs (3-2) nearly pulled off a huge comeback win earlier in the day in the semifinals against Teutopolis. Highland battled back from a 12-point deficit and event went ahead by two points with chances to pull it out before ultimately falling 54-51 to Teutopolis.
The host Salem Lady Wildcats won their own tournament for just the second time after going 5-0, capped off by an impressive 48-36 win over previously unbeaten Teutopolis (4-1) in the title game.
Belleville East easily beat Centralia, 53-35, in the fifth-place game while Olney salvaged its finale after blasting winless Carlyle, 60-43, in the seventh-place game.
Three Highland players were named to the two all-tournament teams, led by senior Amanda Ponce netting first-team honors. She was joined by tournament MVP Dearia Watson of Salem. Joining Ponce and Watson on the all-tournament first team were Salem’s Maddi Hood, Civic Memorial’s Allie Troeckler and Teutopolis’ Shelby Thompson.
“We have a lot of improvement to make,” Ponce said. “We need to learn to play with each other to be the best that we can be. With every loss comes lessons to be learned, and it’s good to have them at the beginning of the season. The tournament is going to help us learn and grow throughout the season. Looking forward to cleaning things up during this week while we prepare for our first conference game against Triad (on Thursday).”
Highland juniors Alex LaPorta and Madison Wellen were selected to the all-tournament second team. Joining them on the all-tournament second team were Anna Hartke and Molly Smith of Teutopolis and Ellisha Davis of Belleville East.
Highland 53, Civic Memorial 51
Civic Memorial (2-3) closed the tourney with a three-game losing streak on Saturday after falling to Salem 42-38 in the semifinals and Highland 53-51 in the third-place tilt.
CM led Highland 28-23 at halftime and took a six-point lead into the fourth quarter before the Lady Bulldogs doubled up the Eagles, 16-8, in the fourth quarter to pull out the two-point triumph.
The junior tandem of Wellen and LaPorta teamed up to make Highland’s inside-outside game a force to be reckoned with in the game.
Wellen had the hot stroke from the outside, canning five 3-pointers on eight attempts en route to finishing with a team-high 21 points. Wellen, who also logged three rebounds, two steals and one assist, finished the game going 8-for-15 from the field.
“I think our team definitely had a lot of learning moments during this tournament,” Wellen said. “We played well when it came down to it, and as a team that is something we haven’t worked on too much. Everyone did their part and I think that’s why we were successful against CM.”
LaPorta has been a beast on the boards through the Lady Bulldogs’ first five games as she has been a double-double machine. In the third-place win over CM, LaPorta hauled down a game-best 14 rebound (six offensive) while also dropping in 15 points to go along with two assists, two steals and one blocked shot.
Allie Troeckler finished with 25 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Eagles, who also got 13 points and three assists from Alaira Tyrus and 10 points and five boards from Izzy Buckley.
But after that trio, CM struggled shooting the ball, including going 3-for-16 from 3-point territory.
Journey Coffman and Kaylee Eaton both went scoreless for the Eagles, with Coffman missing all eight of her field-goal attempts and Eaton misfiring on all six her shots.
Both teams took good care of the ball as Highland only had five turnovers and CM turned the ball over eight times.
Also making contributions for the Lady Bulldogs were junior Hayley Taylor with nine points, seven rebounds and one assist, Ponce with seven points, six boards, two blocks, two assists and two steals, and junior Abby Melosi with one point and three assists, senior Caitlin Lammers with five boards, three assists and one steal, and freshman Kate Marti with two assists.
Teutopolis 54, Highland 51
In the semifinals, the Lady Bulldogs battled all the way back from a double-digit deficit and even held the lead before finally bowing to the Lady Shoes.
Highland again was prudent with the basketball, committing just eight turnovers and shooting 46 percent (21-for-46) from the field.
Highland put three players in double figures, led by LaPorta’s double-double of 14 points and 12 rebounds. LaPorta, who hit 6-of-9 field goals, also had two assists and two steals.
Wellen finished just one point back with 13 points. She also added three boards, three assists, two steals and one block.
Ponce produced 11 points, four rebounds, three assists and one steal.
“The two games we lost were both by three points; however, the 12-point comeback against T-Town definitely showed that our team has a lot of heart and will do what it takes to compete,” Wellen said. “Overall we played some good basketball throughout the tournament and I think it gave us some confidence going into the season by beating some quality teams.”
Also compiling stats for the Lady Bulldogs were Lammers with seven points, three boards and one assist, Taylor with seven rebounds, two points and one steal, Kampwerth with two points, two boards and one assist, and Melosi with two points, one rebound, one assist and one steal.
This story was originally published November 30, 2015 at 10:50 AM with the headline "Girls Basketball: HHS battles back to place third at Salem."