In front of a jam-packed Highland High School, the Huskie boys’ basketball team capped off their home slate with a win over North Cedar 72-68 in a class 1A district semifinal.

As heard on KCII, the first quarter was full of lead changes with Highland having a slight 13-12 advantage. The second was a flurry of runs with the Huskies building an eight point lead only to have the Knights score the next eight to tie it back up. A solid close to the half saw Highland up 31-25 at the break. The home team came out red-hot to start the third with Cole Adamson and Mason McFarland each burying a couple triples to extend the lead to as much as 19 points. North Cedar and their unlimited range from deep kept them in it cutting the deficit to single digits early in the fourth. A healthy dose of Zack Lasek paint touches and getting to the line helped the Huskies hold off the surging Knights.

Head Coach Bill Zywiec tells KCII Sports he liked how his team stayed the course. “We knew coming in that they had a few shooters with the volleyball line range so we needed to extend out on them. I think we were a little nervous in the early going, but we then settled in defensively and got some stops. We are at our best when we work inside out offensively with Zack. We were able to find him and then hit some big shots.”

Adamson connected four times from behind the arc and finished with a game-high 24 points and Lasek was right behind with 23. McFarland chipped in with 11 points and Bill Laughlin rounded out the double-digit scoring with 10.

North Cedar concludes the season 13-10 while Highland improves to 20-4 and advances to the district title game tomorrow in North Liberty against Springville (18-5) in a contest that can be heard on KCII.