Highlands school girls basketball get the ‘W’, boys fall to Hayesville
Photo by Christopher Lugo/Staff HHS senior Hayley Borino led the team with 20 points against Hayesville.
The Highlands School varsity basketball teams split in a matchup between Hayesville, Friday night.
With the split, both teams are now 2-4 for the season.
Girls’ Game:
Highlands – 45
Hayesville – 27
The Lady Highlanders got the “W” after outscoring the Lady Jackets 22-6 in the third period.
HHS got up first in the first period 11-8.
With 4:24 left in the half, the Lady Highlanders were still up by four at 15-11.
Hayley Borino hit a three pointer with 2:10 left in the half to go up 18-11.
After a free throw from Borino, and a free throw from Hayesville, the Lady Highlanders went into the half up 19-12.
Julia Schmitt opened up the third period with a pair of free throws, and Borino followed with a steal, passing it back to Julia Schmitt for the lay-up to increase the lead 23-12.
Borino then hit two three pointers back-to-back, followed by a steal and lay-up from Beatrice Bryson to get the Lady Highlanders up 31-12.
After Hayesville answered, Borino hit another three pointer to go up 34-14.
Borino was then fouled with 2:43 left in the third period, draining both free throws making it 36-14.
With 2:05 left in the third period, Hayesville had a three pointer, but Reese Schmitt answered with a layup to make it 38-17.
Borino was fouled with 1:37 left in the third period and then again with one minute left in the third. She drained three free throws to end the period up 41-18.
Bella Wilson opened the fourth period for the Lady Highlanders with a steal and layup, making it 43-18.
Hayesville then went on a hot streak, draining a three pointer, and three layups, but could not catch up to the Lady Highlanders, ultimately falling 45-27.
Borino led the scoring effort for the Lady Highlanders with 20 points.
“We started out a little slow,” HHS head coach Brett Lamb said. “Hayesville wanted to start out really slow, bang it inside and use their size and they did a good job of that in the first half. We had a decent lead, but coming off of last night, after a tough loss to Rosman, we were trying to get the girls to bounce back. We had an eight-point lead, and it should have been more, but we’ll take it. I had a feeling we would miss some shots just because we were tired, because a lot of kids logged a lot of minutes last night and it got us.”
After Borino made three three pointers in the third period, Lamb said he thought “finally.”
“She has been waiting on that,” Lamb said. “She and I had a long talk the other day and she told me that she felt like the weight of the world was on her shoulders. I told her to get her teammates involved and to relax and play and that’s what she did. We outscored them 22-6 in the third period and she had 14 out of the 22.”
The win on Friday night breaks a three-game losing streak for the Lady Highlanders.
“I told the girls that we are on a train, and we are going to keep this train rolling,” Lamb said. “We’ve got two big games coming up and we are still missing a lot of shots. We get a break coming up then we have a game against Hiawassee Dam, which is a long trip, and that scares me, but we will work hard. We don’t have much time, but we’ve got to lock some things down. It really comes down to what we do. I want them to know what the other team does and who to cover, but it’s all about what we do.”
Boys’ Game:
Highlands – 26
Hayesville – 59
After a one-point victory over Rosman last Thursday, the Highlanders fell to Hayesville on Friday night, 59-26.
Hayesville opened things in the first period with a three pointer, but HHS’ Nathan Keener answered with a floater to make it 3-2.
Hayes scored another three pointer with 4:46 left in the first period, but Kasen Mitchell answered with a three of his own, keeping it at a one point game, 6-5.
The Jackets ended the first period with a layup followed by a jump shot to go into the second period up 10-5.
Hayesville went on a hot streak, scoring two three pointers and a layup to increase their lead 18-5, before Jeffrey Olvera had an and one with 4:01 left to go in the half.
After two layups, the Jackets were still up 22-7, before Mason Taylor hit a three pointer to make it 22-10.
Hayesville went on another hot streak, scoring 11 points from a three pointer and a couple layups to go up 33-12.
With 30 seconds left in the half, the Jackets scored on a layup to go into halftime up 35-12.
Hayesville opened the second half with two layups to make it 37-12, before Nathan Keener had a three pointer to cut the lead 39-15.
With 5:28 left in the third period, Hayesville had a layup and two free throws to make it 43-15.
Jeffrey Olvera hit a three pointer with 4:38 left in the third period, but the Jackets answered with a three pointer and a free throw to increase their lead 48-18.
With a minute left in the third period, Nathan Keener had a jumper to make it 48-21 and then Keener made a layup with 26 seconds left in the third period to make it 48-23.
Hayesville opened the fourth period with a free throw, followed by a free throw from James Earp to make it 50-23.
With 4:30 left in the fourth period, Hayesville hit a layup. Jeffrey Olvera then hit a layup, but it was answered by a Hayesville three pointer, making it 55-26.
Two layups before the end of the game finished the scoring effort for the Jackets at 59-26.
Nathan Keener led the scoring effort for the Highlanders with nine points.
“We knew coming in that we were going up against one of the best teams,” HHS head coach Kaitlin Bishop said. “They were very talented and very athletic. I’m down to eight players right now with four or five out with the flu. We did the best we could. We had two big games this week and we have played hard. We were tired. Last night was a big one and a long one and we were a little gassed coming into today. We played hard against a good team, and we did the best we could. We’ve got to keep working though.”
- By Christopher Lugo