Tigers take out Huskies

NEW LONDON — It was the longest 10 minutes of the season for the Highland basketball team, which also happened to be the first 10 minutes of the Class 1A Substate 5 opener.

New London’s defense held Highland completely scoreless until 5:30 showed on the second quarter clock, and that was plenty enough to jump start a 54-34 Tiger victory, which ended Highland’s boys hoops season.

“In the locker room pregame, we kind of had a little different mindset,” said New London head coach Jesse Swanson. “I didn’t know if it was nervousness or calmness, but obviously it was a confident mindset.”

New London led 13-0 after one quarter and 26-7 at halftime, and although Highland was able to cut the advantage back down to 12 in the third quarter, the Huskies never saw a single digit deficit after the initial Tiger run.

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“We’ve been working a little bit on defense, help rotation and gap protection, and they were on point with that tonight,” said Swanson. “We’ve now won four out of the last five games, and it really does feel good.”

The Tigers crushed the Huskies with offensive rebounds in the first half, and collected 17 in the game. Eight of those boards went to Kye Reighard, who finished the night with 11 points and 15 rebounds.

“We really stepped up in the firs thalf,” Reighard said. “In the second half, we kind of fell off, but the first half, we had them on lock for the entire half.”

Brigham Porter finished the night with 12 points to lead the Tigers in scoring. Israel Lemley had 11 points. Gavin Strawhacker scored eight. London Franklin had seven. Jalen Reynolds scored three, and Deklin Wiseman finished with two.

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Highland’s Landon Rolling scored 14 points to lead the Huskies. Bryce Hazelett finished with eight. Hunter Seibel and Jesse Thompson put in four each, and both Presten Smith and Kyler Fink finished with two.

Highland ended the year at 3-20. New London (7-16) earned a second-round matchup at top-seeded Notre Dame (20-2) on Monday night.

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