Another District Win for Highlands Girls Hoops

Highlands Handles Bellevue

PHOTO: Allen Ramsey, DWCPhoto.com. Highlands freshman Emma Mallery dribbles toward the basket in a recent game.

The Highlands Bluebird girls basketball team (5-1 overall) moved to 3-0 in 9th Region action and 2-0 in 36th District play with a convincing 70-28 win at Bellevue on Tuesday.

Highlands recorded 17 steals off 19 Bellevue turnovers while committing just nine turnovers on six steals. The Bluebirds made 29-of-60 shots for 48 percent including 7-of-22 from three-point range for 32 percent and all five free-throw tries. Bellevue (3-3, 0-1) hit 10-of-36 shots for 28 percent and missed all nine three-point tries.

Highlands Head Coach Jaime Walz-Richey challenged the team not to settle once it builds a nice lead after the St. Henry win. She credited the leaders for taking the charge there. Highlands led 43-16 at halftime.

"Brooke (Dill), Zoie (Barth) and Chloe (Jansen) are great leaders and I think they lead by example and the other girls follow their lead," Richey said. "Knowing that when they are out there on the court, everyone is giving 110 percent."

Highlands saw four players score in double figures and did not let one Bellevue player score more than six points. Junior Ashley Hayes made five three-pointers on her way to 15 points. Barth and sophomore Maggie Hinegardner scored 12 each with Hanna Buecker scoring 10.

"We just focus on continuing to play hard and keep pushing ourselves even when we are up to make ourselves get better," Hinegardner said. "We really focus on sharing the ball and making sure we shoot when we're open. We try to get the whole team involved so we can continue to be successful."

Highlands travels to Ryle (4-3) on Thursday. Game time is 7:30 p.m.