Highland girls triumph over Richland Center 42-28

By John Dalton

It wasn’t the prettiest of games, which is somewhat expected when your team doesn’t have school on the day you play, and the next day Christmas break begins, but the Highland girls overcame a sluggish shooting night by playing good defense and dominating the boards, and eventually pulled away from Richland Center Tuesday night 42-28 in a non-conference game to move their record to 7-1 overall.  

Cardinal Sophia Tarrell hit the first bucket of the game early, but it took nearly five minutes before Adilyn Esser hit a 3-point shot to put Highland up 5-2 at the 13:00 minute mark of the first half.  It soon became 7-2 after Tarrell grabbed an offensive rebound and laid it back in.  Hornet Addie Board then hit a corner 3-point shot to make it 7-5.

The Hornets never led in the game. Up 10-8 with 9:00 minutes left in the first half, the Cardinals went on a little run sparked by a Caitlyn Fritsch layup, and two more 3-point shots by Esser, and at halftime the Cardinals held a 20-13 lead.  

To start the second half, Addison Bedward grabbed a loose ball on the Hornet end of the court and took it the distance for a hoop, and on the next possession she hit a short jumper in the lane to increase their lead 24-13.  

The taller Hornets struggled most of the night shooting the ball.  Midway through the second half Ellavy Weiss hit back-to-back hoops to help keep the Hornets within striking reach.  She led her team with 9 points.

But each time the Hornets scored, so did Highland. Another 3-point shot by Esser, a jumper in the lane by Celia Oleson, and a 3-point shot by Emily Laufenberg helped seal the deal for the Cardinals. Esser led all scorers on the night with 12 points, all from beyond the arc, leading the way to the 42-28 victory.

“It was one of those nights, we didn’t have school today, so sometimes when you don’t have school, when your kind of laying around during the day. Boy, we just looked like we were running in mud there for awhile in the first half,” said Highland Head Coach Josh Tarrell following the game. “But our defense was there, thank goodness. We switched to a man defense and since we did that, I thought our girls played really well in the second half.”

“Sometimes the shots don’t fall very often, and tonight was one of those nights, that’s why you’ve got to have good defense and thank God we did tonight,” he said.  

The Cardinals repeatedly got offensive rebounds against the taller Hornet squad, sometimes getting three or four boards and second-chance opportunities. “I do need to give kudos to Caitlyn Fritsch, she had a heck of a game, I don’t know how many rebounds she had tonight, but she was tough tonight, it was good to see,” Tarrell said.  

At 7-1 overall, and 4-0 in the Six Rivers-West, the Cardinals will enjoy the holiday break before a tough stretch of games that begin in early January. “We had a long stretch of home games here against some teams that we needed to win, and we did that.  We’ll be facing some good teams coming up, Darlington at home Saturday, that is going to be a test, they’re good and they have a good coach, so we need to be ready, it should be fun,” Tarrell said.  

The game against Darlington at Highland is scheduled for Saturday, January 3rd.  The tip-off is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.  

Box Score

Highland 20 – 22 – 42

Richland Center 13 – 15 – 28

Highland (fg-ft-tp); Adilyn Esser 4-0-12, Addison Bedward 4-0-9, Caitlyn Fritsch 3-1-7, Celia Oleson 2-3-7, Sophia Tarrell 2-0-4, Emily Laufenberg 1-0-3.

3-pointers; Esser 4, Bedward 1, Laufenberg 1

Richland Center (fg-ft-tp); Ellavy Weiss 3-3-9, Addie Board 2-2-8, Taylor Wertz 2-0-4, Kylie Burns 1-0-3, Ella Clements 1-0-2, Rylee Teschner 1-0-2.

3-pointers; Board 2, Burns 1.