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If the Highland girls basketball team could have had one of three things go their way Monday night the might not have suffered a heartbreaking two point loss to visiting Belleville.
If only a couple of the "gimme" shots that refused to find the bottom of the net would have gone in....
If only a couple offensive putbacks the Wildcats were able to get would have bounced Highland's way....
If only a couple more free throws would have found the mark....
If only.
But is wasn't to be as the easy shots more often than not rimmed out and ended up in the possession of the Wildcats. And the misses on Belleville's end more often than usual found their way in the hands of the visitors for putbacks or to give them control of the basketball to set up another try.
To make matters worse the Cardinals did not get to the free throw line enough times and when they did they were only successful on four of 10 tries.
To their credit the Cardinals almost pulled it out and only lost 60-58. They were trailing by eight midway through the second half when Katelyn Esser and Rachel Miller took turns getting them back in it.
Esser went on a 14 point run and Miller added 10 down the stretch that pulled the Cardinals even with 36 seconds to play. They also had a Wildcat miss a pair of free throws.
But then the offensive rebounding came back one last time to haunt. Belleville missed both tries but picked up the rebound and drew another foul.
This time Ava Foley put in both ends of the double bonus for what proved to be the winning points at 60-58. Foley led all scorers with 23 points.
Esser ended up as Highland's leading scorer with 19 points and Miller added 18.
Highland coach Josh Tarrell felt Esser had a very strong performance especially the second half but overall the missed bunnies and free throws as well as getting beat on the offensive boards took its toll.
"Pick out any of the three things we could have done better and we would have come away the winner," said Tarrell. "This is one of those games where you go away from it knowing you learned something from a loss."
The Cardinals return to action January 4 when they play Iowa-Grant.
SCORE BY HALVES
Belleville 27 33 60
Highland 21 37 58
BOX SCORE
BELLEVILLE 60: (fg-ft-tp) Stampfl 5-1-12, Edge 2-0-4, Foley 6-11-23, Caskey 2-1-5, Winkers 1-0-2, Smith 6-2-14 Totals 22-15/28-60 Fouls-13
HIGHLAND 58: James 0-0-0, Drury 1-0-2, Mueller 3-1-8, Meg Tarrell 3-0-7, Fredericks 2-0-4, Esser 8-2-19, Miller 7-1-18, Maya Tarrell 0-0-0 Totals 24-4/10-58 Fouls-20
3 point goals:
B (1)-Stampfl 1
H (6)-Miller 3, Esser 1, Meg Tarrell 1, Mueller 1