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Highland's girls basketball team was on its third game of the 2014-15 campaign while host Iowa-Grant was playing its first one. The playing difference especially showed in the opening quarter when the Cardinals jumped to a 14-5 lead and basically never looked back in a 53-32 non-conference win last Tuesday.
The Panthers managed a three pointer by Taylor Jackson to cut the early Cardinal lead to 6-3, but the visitors went on an 8-2 run to close out period one.
Iowa-Grant cut the lead to seven by the half with a 14-13 edge in the second frame as six girls scored, but they only managed seven and six points in the two second half periods with Highland hitting 12 and 14.
Brenna Bomkamp poured in 12 of her game-high 18 points in the first half to pace the Cardinals with Caitlin Wienkes and Mackenzie Drury both adding 10.
Wienkes hit eight of her points in the third quarter while Drury nailed eight in the fourth.
Iowa-Grant was paced by Carley Richards with seven points.
The plus was the Panthers had all 10 players reach the scoring column.
"Free throws were huge for us tonight," said Highland coach Josh Tarrell. "We hit 17 of 24 and last year we only shot 52%."
He said I-G played a box and one on them to try and take Wienkes out of her game.
"We hadn't practiced for that. They put Liddicoat on her. She's a great defender and held her down. Caitlin scored when Liddicoat was on the bench in foul trouble," he added.
"We also knew that left Brenna open some and we took advantage of that. She either scored a basket or was fouled when we got the ball to her. She had a great game."
Iowa-Grant coach Craig Jenkins said, "Going in I thought we matched up pretty well with them, especially Bomkamp with Kylie (Moneypenny) defending her, but she was too strong and long for us. She really uses the backboard well and is an outstanding free throw shooter."
"Tonight we had an inability to rebound on defense and were stagnant on offense. We didn't play as fast as we needed to and then weren't in position for rebounds. Also, we had too many fouls away from the ball."
"But give Highland credit - They are a very good team. Wienkes has a forward's body and is a point guard. She's very good at taking care of the ball. We got it down to nine and then she took the ball coast to coast on us a couple of times."
SCORE BY QUARTERS
H 14 13 12 14-53
I 5 14 7 6-32
BOX SCORE
HIGHLAND 53 (fg, ft, tp) Drury 3-4/4-10, Wienkes 5-0-10, Aden 0-0-0, Hach 0-0-0, Bomkamp 6-6/9-18, Dailey 0-1/3-1, Rose 1-5/6-7, Yager 2-0-4, McMannes 1-1/2-3, Esser 0-0-0. Totals 18-17/24-53. F-17. 3-pointers: none.
IOWA-GRANT 32: Richards 2-3/4-7, Moneypenny 1-1/2-3, Wernimont 1-0-2, Ginter 0-2/2-2, Grimm 1-0-2, Roth 1-0/2-2, Liddicoat 2-0-4, Yelinek 1-0-2, Jackson 2-0/2-5, Stanton 1-0-3. Totals 12-6/12-32. F-19. 3-pointers: Jackson 1, Stanton 1.