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In a game that afterwards Highland coach Josh Tarrell said, "we played about a half of a quarter of good basketball tonight", the Cardinal girls basketball team fell to visiting Belmont 39-27 Thursday night.
The half of a quarter he was speaking about came in the second frame when he saw his team go from being down 13-7 to taking a 16-15 lead at halftime.
But, that didn't last long as the Lady Braves went up 23-19 when 5' 10" Keegan Kamps nailed two free throws and fellow senior guard Katelyn Schobert connected on one of two charity tosses.
Free throws was the name of the game especially for Belmont. They finished the night hitting 18 of 29 with Kamps connecting 12 of 13 times and Schobert sinking five of seven. The Cardinals were able to connect on only 7 of 18.
In fact, the Lady Braves only hit 10 field goals on the night. and Highland connected nine times from the field.
The foul differential wasn't outrageous though with the Cardinals committing 22 to Belmont's 14, but the Lady Braves were in the double bonus in the second quarter and several Highland fouls came in the act of shooting.
Kamps finished the night as the game's leading scorer with 18 points. She was 7x8 from the free throw line in the second half.
Highland was led by Brenna Bomkamp with seven points and Jessica Kosharek with six.
"After having the lead at half, we hung in there in the third," Tarrell said. "But 23 turnovers on the night against a team like Belmont signals a loss."
"Caitlin Wienkes (point guard and one of their top scorers) being out hurt us especially with ball handling, but we should be able to have others step up and fill the void," the coach said. "Belmont outhustled us and outworked us. We just never had any rhythm tonight - our offense was flat."
The Cardinals travel ot River Ridge Thursday for another tough Six Rivers West contest.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
B 9 6 9 11-39
H 5 11 3 8-27
BOX SCORE
BELMONT 39 (fg, ft, tp) Riechers 2-0-4, Schobert 0-5/7-5, Kamps 3-12/13-18, Gilbertson 1-1/8-3, Knebel 2-0-5, Nolan 2-0/1-4. Totals 10-18/29-39 F-14. 3-pointers: Knebel 1.
HIGHLAND 27: Drury 0-0-0, Aden 0-0-0, Kosharek 2-0-6, Hach 0-0-0, Bomkamp 2-3/8-7, Dailey 1-0-2, Rose 1-2/4-4, Yager 2-0/2-4, McMannes 1-2/4-4, Esser 0-0-0. Totals 9-7/18-27. F-22. 3-pointers Kosharek 2.