Highland girls shore up defense for strong finish at Visitation Christmas Tournament
Highland girls basketball coach Clint Hamilton was unhappy with his team’s defense against Cor Jesu Academy on Thursday afternoon.
The Bulldogs found themselves in a tight battle up just four points at halftime against a talented Chargers club.
Hamilton stressed the importance of better defense at the break and the Bulldogs responded with a big-time second-half effort.
Highland held Cor Jesu to just 14 second-half points and outscored the Chargers 24-14 over the final 16 minutes to earn a 51-37 victory and the Visitation Christmas Tournament consolation championship at Visitation Academy in St. Louis.
It was a perfect end to the holiday week for Highland (11-7), which won three straight games after losing their opener in the tourney to Lift For Life 53-46 last Saturday.
“It’s a big deal for us to win and it’s one of the best tournaments around. One through 16, you’ve got kids over here that can play over here so it’s very fortunate for us to go 3-1,” Hamilton said. “We did a nice job of learning about ourselves here. Defensively, we kind of hung our hat on that and locked in when we needed to and it was nice to see a couple shots go in in the second half.”
Cor Jesu (7-2) jumped to a 17-12 lead late in the first quarter on a Lauren Ortwerth basket and a Kenzie Van Bree three-point play.
Highland responded with a 10-2 surge capped by a Sophie Schroeder trey from the left elbow, pushing their lead to 27-19 with 3:22 left in the second quarter.
The Chargers pulled back into it on an Ortwerth bucket to close the half down only 27-23.
In the third quarter, HHS turned up its defensive intensity, and a Larissa Taylor three-ball and a pair of Jordan Bircher free throws kickstarted a 10-3 run which gave the Bulldogs a 39-30 lead after three quarters.
“I definitely think our defense carried into our offense tonight,” Taylor said. Obviously, at the start, we had to score more because we weren’t playing enough on defense, and in the second half we came out got some steals, got some baskets and I just think overall the energy got a lot better and made me and everyone else more confident.”
Taylor also noted that Hamilton’s halftime talk got the Bulldogs refocused quickly. “He said our defense has to be better and we have to be quicker and we’re getting challenged with past who can make shots and guards who can finish at the basket, so he just challenged us to be better on defense and Lauren (Maas) and Abby (Schultz) helped with that too.”
HHS continued to roll in the fourth quarter, stretching the lead to as much as 15 points in the final two and a half minutes of play.
Winning the consolation bracket in their first-ever trip to Visitation was a big confidence booster for HHS as they head into the second half of the season next week.
“I think it just shows we can play over here (in Missouri) and it’s not the trophy we wanted but it’s the trophy we got and we fought for the last three wins we got over here and it just shows rankings don’t matter because we came over here and showed teams we can play,” Taylor said.
Taylor led Highland with 13 points. Schroeder and Bircher had solid outings as well with 11 points each.
Ortwerth and Kenzie Van Bree topped Cor Jesu with 11 points apiece.
HHS defeated Edwardsville (43-37) on Tuesday, and Ursuline Academy (35-31) on Wednesday to advance to the consolation championship game.
