Huskies fall flat in rematch with Bulldogs

RIVERSIDE - The earlier meeting between Highland and Mediapolis boys basketball teams was a 63-60 road win for Highland, so both teams knew it would be a battle Friday.

According to Highland coach Marcus Hall, only one team treated it that way as Mediapolis took an early lead and sprinted to the 61-52 Southeast Iowa Super Conference North Division win.

'I'm wondering what the difference was,” Hall said. 'This was a big game in the conference race, big game on a Friday night, a big game at home with a lot at stake in the conference race and we were flat. I'm not sure what that was about. I cannot relate to that.”

Mepo was 7-3 in the North while Highland was 7-2. Pekin leads at 9-1 with that one loss at Highland. Mediapolis is now 9-3 overall and 8-3 North.

The Huskies' took a 4-2 lead with both baskets by Zack Lasek, then never led again, giving up a 12-3 run. The Huskies rallied to trail 16-13 starting the second quarter and tied it at 21, but trailed 29-24 at halftime.

Drew Schroeder scored eight of his Mediapolis high 21 points in the second quarter.

Lasek hit a triple and Mason McFarland scored inside to get within 31-29, but Ben Wolgemuth tallied 13 of the next 15 points for the visitors including a 3-pointer at the buzzer for a 46-31 edge starting the final period.

He finished with 20 and Nick Ensminger had 16.

'I feel like we have three kids that can go for 30 at anytime,” Mepo coach Greg Worrall said. 'I feel we have something special this year that we have not had in the past and that is the fact that all those guys in the locker room love each other. It's very special because it's something you cannot teach. That is high school sports at its finest. It doesn't mean you're going to win every game but it sure gives you a lot better chance.”

Highland went to a different defense to try to wake up its players.

'(Wolgemuth) is a tough matchup for us right now, especially with Trey (Lasek) out, so we went to a half-court trap to try to accomplish a couple things,” Hall said. 'We wanted some other guys to shoot the balls, which they did, and we wanted to get some energy, which helped us get some deflections and get us into transition, but the thing about it is even though we were fortunate enough to have that happen, we were not rebounding.”

It was an 18-point deficit when Ensminger hit a triple to start the fourth, and it was still 16 points when Highland went on an 11-0 run with two triples from McFarland to get it down to a 54-49 game.

A Mediapolis timeout stopped the run, but a Derick Sandburg trey made the score 56-52 with 1 minute, 30 seconds left.

'We missed a lot of defensive rebounds that kept us out of transition,” Hall said. 'We did not get a lot of offensive rebounds when we would miss. We don't have an offense and the defense per se. I think it all strings together, so if we don't get stops, then we don't run and we don't score. The result of all of that is, it's bad.”

Highland wouldn't score again and all of the visitors' remaining points were from the foul line.

'We had two games in a row where we brought it, but those weren't as good of teams as this,” Hall said. 'There is nothing to describe why we wouldn't have that sense of urgency to start this game. Being the kind of game that it was, having that sense of urgency would be the thing to do, the thing to have.”

Highland is 8-4 overall, 7-3 North and plays Pekin (10-2, 9-1) Tuesday.