Wildcats claw past Huskies

There were still two minutes to go in the first half, but Highland girls? basketball head coach Jody Fink seemed to know the gravity of the situation his team was in.

Fouls were piling up for the Huskies, and despite an 18-15 lead, Fink knew his team couldn?t afford to send Columbus senior Kelsey Pretz to the line anymore.

?If it turns into a free-throw shooting contest, they are going to win,? Fink yelled to his team from the sideline. ?She is that good.?

Those words eventually came true, as Pretz hit 10 of 14 free throws on the night, scoring 22 points and grabbing 10 rebounds, as the Wildcats defeated the Huskies 42-37 in Columbus Junction on Monday night.

?Everybody had confidence in themselves,? Pretz said after the game. ?We were making great passes and seeing the floor. You have to believe in your team and believe in yourself and that?s what it takes to win a ballgame.?

Columbus improved to 11-4 with the win (10-4 in conference play), moving into a tie with the Huskies (12-4 overall) for third place in the conference.

The Wildcats and the Huskies will meet again in Highland on Feb. 3.

?We stopped ourselves,? Fink said. ?We didn?t really attack and then they got a rebound or a turnover and it got to Pretz, and she attacked. We put ourselves in a lot of bad situations with girls sitting on the bench with three fouls. It was one thing after another, so it was more us than it was them.?

Despite never leading in the first half, the Wildcats set the tone for the game early, slowing the tempo down dramatically.

Highland took a 9-2 lead late in the first half, but a Pretz bucket and a Claire Hamilton 3-pointer at the first-quarter buzzer made it 9-7 after eight minutes.

Highland jumped out to a seven-point lead in the second quarter, 18-11, but Pretz rattled off six of her 13 first-half points to close the gap to one before halftime.

In the second half, Highland jumped out to another seven-point lead, 24-17, and was able to hold off the Wildcats until the fourth quarter, taking a 29-24 lead after the third.

Columbus went on a 13-2 run to open up the fourth quarter, taking the lead on an and-one by Pretz, and extending that lead to 37-31.

A Highland timeout was called, and quickly, the Huskies cut their deficit in half, to 37-34, but that?s when Bailey Stroud stepped up for the Wildcats.

Stroud hit the next five points for the Wildcats to give her 10 on the night, making it a 42-34 ballgame, before a late 3-pointer for Highland, which proved to be too little, too late.

?I knew I had to make up for a lot of my mistakes before, and my team carried me through that,? Stroud said. ?I knew that when the time came to step up, I had to do it. I felt like that was the time.?

The Wildcats shot 36.1 percent in the win, while shooting 53.5 percent from the free-throw line, something that Columbus hopes it can improve on.

?I?m still unsatisfied a little bit offensively,? Columbus head coach Kasey Keltner said. ?We turned the ball over too much, but this group of girls are fighters. They fight, no matter what, through adversity, and when we needed stops, we got stops. When we needed baskets, we got baskets. This is a good win for us, but we come right back in tomorrow (against Wapello).?

Highland was led by Kelsey Hora?s 10 points, while Katie Springer  had seven rebounds and five points for the Huskies, who have now dropped two straight for the first time this season.

?Adversity is a problem,? Fink said. ?If things don?t come easy, we tend to take a couple of steps backward. Physical games? Girls don?t like them. People touching them? They hate it. Any team that is going to be physical or play man-to-man, none of that stuff will come easy, and that?s what is hurting them right now.?

Columbus will host Wapello, while Highland will travel to Lone Tree on Tuesday night.