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Teams improve as the basketball season goes on and Cassville's girls team proved that Tuesday.
The Comets didn't win their Six Rivers West game at Highland but they played better than the last time the two teams met and stayed close for the first half.
"They came to play," Highland coach Josh Tarrell said about Cassville. "They have improved quite a bit since we saw them earlier in the year."
Highland used a strong second half to turn back Cassville 42-24.
After seeing the Comets get off to a 4-0 start the Cardinals rebounded and led 8-6 at the end of the first quarter. By halftime the Cards still could not get away from the visitors and held an 18-11 lead.
Caitlin Wienkes and Brenna Bomkamp went on a tear the third quarter with seven and six points respectively and pushed the lead for the Cards to 35-17. Highland then cruised to the finish.
Bomkamp had a double double with 11 points and 15 rebounds while Wienkes had all seven of her points in the third.
Scoring honors for the Cards went to Mackenzie Drury who finished with 13 and had a good night handling the basketball. She had a pair of threes in her scoring total.
"She played well," Tarrell said abut Drury's performance. "She hit from the perimeter and also did a good job getting to the rim as well as taking care of the basketball."
"Give Cassville credit," Tarrell said. "They hung in there and cut our lead to five in the third quarter."
But the Cards took a time out and went to a three quarter court trap which resulted in some steals.
"The defensive change was the difference in the game," said Tarrell.
Andrea Oakey led Cassville with 13 points.
The Cardinals are at Belmont Friday.

SCORE BY QUARTERS
Cassville 6 5 6 7 24
Highland 8 10 17 7 42
BOX SCORE
CASSVILLE 24: (fg-ft-tp) Clauer 1-0-2, Nix 3-0-6, Oakey 5-0-13, McMillian 1-0-2, Johll 1-0-2 Totals 11-0/0-24 Fouls-8
HIGHLAND 42: Drury 4-3-13, Wienkes 3-0-7, Bomkamp 5-1-11, Rose 1-0-2, McMannes 2-0-5, Esser 2-0-4 Totals 17-4/6-42 Fouls-9
3 point goals:
C-Oakey 3
H-Drury 2, Wienkes 1, McMannes 1