Furious rallies not enough

NORTH ENGLISH - A nonconference doubleheader for Highland Thursday at English Valleys High School started too soon for the Huskies.

Both the boys and girls teams fell behind by at least 17 points in the first half and trailed by at least 18 to start the fourth quarter.

The Huskies outscored the English Valleys girls 21-10 in the fourth period but lost 57-50.

Highland's boys had an 18-9 fourth quarter advantage on the Bears but lost 69-59.

The boys trailed just 19-15 to end the first quarter. Chase Schultz, who finished with 14 points, scored and Connor Grinstead, who scored 15 points, hit a free throw to start the second quarter but from that 19-18 score, it was 41-24 at halftime. That score ballooned to 48-44 to start the second half.

'When we run an offense, we look pretty fluid,” Highland coach Bill Zyweic said. 'Become a one-man team against three, then its tough to beat teams. This is a team sport and we got to learn that.”

A 60-41 score to start the fourth quarter was shrunk by a 12-5 Highland run. Colby Stokes scored six straight points out of his 15 in the game and that prompted EV to call timeout with 1 minute, 30 seconds remaining and the score was 65-57. Grinstead scored out of the timeout to get it to six-point deficit, but the Bears closed the game by playing keep-away.

'In that fourth quarter, we actually start running a couple of good offensive sets and we got some offense that helped us to hit some shots,” Zyweic said. 'In the first half, we didn't get a lot of shots, but in the fourth, stuff started falling for us.”

Sarah Burton scored 12 points in the girls game and was responsible for ball handling late in the game. Dani Laughlin had 17 points, 12 in the second half. Abbi Stransky netted 14 points.

Highland led 9-7, but trailed at the end of the first quarter 20-9. At the half it was 36-18 and 47-29 starting the fourth quarter. A 13-3 Highland run was keyed by eight points from Laughlin and switching defenses, then starting a press.

Head coach Jody Fink has been out with COVID for a week and assistant coach Michael Eden has taken over with help from middle school coach Cheyenne Adamson.

'Just because he's not here doesn't mean he's not coaching,” Eden said. 'He's supposed to be resting so I was unsure whether to ask him questions but he is sending me text saying to do this and do that.”

Eden also has been talking to boys coach Zywiec.

The combination of coaching minds helped Highland streak into a 4-point deficit but the Huskies ran out of time.

'We've been big on effort, big on energy, this week and I think that's what got us back into it,” Adamson said.

Change from a 3-2 defense to a 2-3 seemed to spark the scoring surge.

'We were able to guard the high post a little better and it helped us they weren't expecting it,” Adamson said.

'We can be a great team when we start communicating,” Eden said. 'We have an athletic team and our leaders started speaking up, but we need them to do that at the beginning, not just when we get it to four points.”

It was 54-50 with under a minute but the Bears made free throws to clinch it.

Fink been out a week, spent time in hospital but out now.