Highland Continues On As Jersey Ends Girls Basketball Season Thursday Evening
An especially strong Highland defense helped keep the Panthers in check, although Clare Breden scored 14 points to lead Jersey. The Panthers kept battling throughout the game, and head coach Kevin Strebel was proud of his team's efforts all season long.
"Well, the nice thing is that we get a chance to compete with a group like that over there," Strebel said. "That's a really talented group over there, well-coached. They've got some really good things going on, and to know that we have been a team that's competing with them, beat them here a couple of weeks ago. And I told the players in the locker room to just think we managed to finish ahead of them in the (Mississippi Valley) conference is quite a statement, because that's just a really good team over there. They've got guards that don't turn the ball over, that can make shots, they've got post players that can score, and can rebound. They can defend. They made it harder than heck on us to score. Nobody really in a while has kept us down in that low-30 range. We just couldn't score in the first half, and really didn't score much better in the second half."
And Strebel knows that the Panthers had a good season, and will look back on many accomplishments his team had during the campaign.
"In terms of good things, it's a good season," Strebel said. "That's what you look back on. This group has had a special season, a special couple of seasons. and we keep coming back and trying to fight, but couldn't get there tonight."
The Bulldogs' fast starts, along with tight defense, played big roles in the eventual outcome of the game.
"It helped that we started fast," said Highland head coach Clint Hamilton, "and defensively, we did a great job keeping the guards out of the paint. Their offense is predicated on getting the ball to the rim, then kicking it out for threes and dishing it. So defensively, we had a mindset of making sure we keep the ball in the paint, and our kids executed it to perfection. You can't say enough about Ashlyn Klucker; she did a great job on Breden tonight, just always constant pressure, making her feel uncomfortable. I know Breden still scored a little bit tonight, but she's a great player, so she's going to get hers over time."
The post play for Highland also helped swing the game the Bulldogs' way.
"I thought a lot had to do with our post players," Hamilton said. "They did a great job recognizing when they were double-teamed. When it was just a one-on-one matchup, they did a great job of getting the ball to the rim, and our guards were ready, they had their feet set, and just comfortable in rhythm."
LaPorta and guard Ellie Brown led Highland with 12 points each, while Kirsten Taylor hit for 10 points, including a pair of third quarter threes that put the Bulldogs ahead 30-14. Taylor Kesner contributed eight points to the Highland cause.
Breden was the only Panther in double figures, while three other players, Sally Hudson, Abby Manns and Grace Myers had four points each.
The Bulldogs are now 25-7 and advance to the Effingham sectional, where they'll meet up with Mt. Vernon, who upset Olney Richland County 54-48 to win the Richland County regional, in the first semifinal, starting at 6 p.m. The winner advances to the final next Thursday night agains the winner of the second semifinal between Civic Memorial and Mattoon.
Hamilton knows that the Bulldogs have things to work on, but will be ready for the Rams on Monday night.
"We'll have to see who wins between Olney and Mt. Vernon," Hamilton said, "I know Olney's got a great player; they've got a sophomore who's already scored 1,000 points. Mt. Vernon's tough; I've got a film on them from when they played Triad. So we'll kind of see who wins, and go to the game plan around that."
The Panthers end their season 24-7, and Strebel recognized his seniors for their contributions to the program, and has a good underclass returning for the 2020-21 campaign.
"We had, in a way, five seniors this year that really did some nice things for us," Strebel said. "Our manager, Alexis Cohen, was somebody who stuck around after she had some injuries, and helped us out that way, and then seniors Grace Sharich, Abby Manns, Bella Metzler and Lauren Brown were really good leaders for us, and they put this program in a better place by the time they left than whenever they came in, and we're really appreciative of that."
"This was a group that was a pretty veteran group," Strebel said. "We had four senior players, and then, another five juniors behind them that play a lot of basketball, and then, one sophomore, Chloe White. She got banged up in practice yesterday. She's really been helping us; she had 20 points the other night, and we couldn't hardly get her on the court tonight. So that didn't help, but she's really had a spectacular season, too. So, all of our seniors, we appreciate what they've done, but our growth from our juniors and sophomore that was there, they really have come a long way, and get us in position to compete for something like this."
