The second half of the season will start up Monday for a pair of boys’ basketball teams when Columbus Community hosts Highland for a Southeast Iowa Super Conference showdown.
The Wildcats seek their first win of the year after an 0-7 pre-Christmas record. Mason Hodges has been a bright spot with 8.8 points and 7.2 rebounds a night. Owen Watson adds 5.6 points and six boards a game. The Huskies had a late start to their season and sit at 0-2. Plenty of new faces surround this Highland squad and in the small sample size, Trevor McFarland has led the way with 9.5 points and six rebounds a contest. Senior Tristan Stokes adds 7.5 points an evening. The series has been dominated by Highland in the last decade with a 17-game win streak over Columbus dating back to 2011.
The Highland basketball teams were back in action on Thursday on the road against Danville and the Bears swept the doubleheader.
In the girls’ game, Highland trailed just 29-22 at the break, but a 19-3 third quarter in favor of Danville set up a 62-39 final score. Sophomores Abbi Stransky and Dani Laughlin led the Huskies with 10 points a piece. The Highland boys found themselves down 26-6 after eight minutes and the Bear momentum never stopped with a 66-27 final. Brenton Bonebrake knocked down a pair of triples to finish with a team-high 10 points. Trevor McFarland added eight points and seven boards.
A delayed start to the season finally started up for the Highland basketball teams on Tuesday night and the Huskies were swept in a Southeast Iowa Super Conference doubleheader with Louisa-Muscatine.
The Highland girls got out to a rough start trailing 16-7 after one, 34-15 at the break, and could never find their footing in a 58-34 defeat. The Falcons’ (4-1) Kylee Sanders was too much to slow down, as the senior tallied a game-high 24 points and six steals. Highland shot just 26% from the floor and were led by Dani Laughlin with 14 points. Sarah Burton added nine points in her freshman debut and Kayla Cerny added 10 rebounds.
By Jeff Yoder
Trailing Louisa-Muscatine by four points late in the third quarter, Highland battled for a basket.
After a missed shot, a steal, another missed shot, and an offensive rebound, finally a Tristan Stokes layup pulled the Huskies within 31-29 with an 8-1 run.
Seconds later, they were back down by five as the Falcons beat the buzzer with a 3-pointer.
The L-M lead stayed between three and nine points the rest of the way as Highland opened the season with a 48-43 loss.
“We’re about a week behind everybody else, and where we re at right now is kind of where you would expect after a week of practice,” Highland coach Bill Zywiec said.