Both the Highlanders and Lady Highlanders basketball teams had a good opening night, as they soundly defeated the visitors from Rosman.
The Lady Highlanders beat the Rosman Lady Tigers 50-17, while the boys beat the Tigers 54-41.
The Lady Highlanders got an early lead and were able to keep it up throughout the entirety of the game, weaving around their opponents’ defenses with nimble pacing and rapid-fire passes.
Coach Brett Lamb said it was a “great team win” for early in the season.
“The team is playing very unselfishly,” he said. “I thought our pressure defense and up tempo pace really set the tone for our night.”
Lamb said the win could be attributed to the Lady Highlanders scoring some easy baskets through rebounding and limiting the Lady Tigers to one shot. Knocking down some timely outside shots also helped keep the lead, he said.
Despite some foul trouble, Lamb said the team got some good play off the bench. “That is going to be needed as we go through this long season,” he said.
Some things Lamb said the team needed to work on included “playing pressure defense without fouling and also shooting off the dribble. Also continue to get in better playing shape.”
Then the Highlanders faced off against the Tigers. The Tigers scored first and then the Highlanders did a few moments after. The teams were evenly matched at first, but the Highlanders pulled ahead and stayed there for the rest of the game, which unfolded into a hard and fast series of shots and strenuous, agile defensive moves. The Highlanders kept scoring, but the Tigers were able to keep up at a steady pace behind them, so the game was never short on action.
For a time in the third quarter, no one scored. The teams were deadlocked in a pattern of missing shots and the ball changing sides, sometimes every few seconds. The Tigers scored some more points and appeared to be catching up, but the Highlanders were able to nail several shots in a row and keep their lead until the end of the game.
Coach Kaitlyn Bishop said it was a “great feeling” to get their first win of the season.
“Finally saw us get into a rhythm tonight offensively. We struggled some in the first half so at halftime we made some adjustments and came out rolling in the 3rd quarter. We played well but we missed a lot of shots close to the basket that we have to start knocking down,” she wrote in an email.
Asked what she wants the team to focus on next, she said there were “some kinks and critiquing to do defensively and offensively,” though she was overall positive on the team’s direction so far.
“The team atmosphere we have right now is awesome and our team goal is to leave the gym every day a better ball player than we walked into the gym, whether it’s from a game or practice. These boys are working hard and I’m excited to see what’s to come for this group,” she wrote.