In a battle for the class 1A district 7 crown, it was the hot shooting of Springville that pulled away from Highland for a 59-35 win to end the Huskies’ playoff run at Iowa City Liberty.

As heard on KCII, the five-guard Oriole lineup came out red-hot from long range burying their first several shots and led 20-14 after one. The Huskies kept it close in part by three first quarter triples from Mason McFarland and a half-court buzzer beater by Bill Laughlin. The second quarter is when the Orioles got some separation with the ability to get in the lane offensively and a suffocating 2-3-zone that held 6’8’’ Zack Lasek to four points at the break. The tally was 36-18 at half. The Orioles cooled off in the final two quarters, but Highland could not take advantage and trailed 50-29 after three. Springville played keep away in the final eight minutes and cruised to the 24-point victory. McFarland led the Huskies with 12 points, Cole Adamson had eight, and Lasek finished with six. Highland Head Coach Bill Zywiec was proud of his team all season. “It was a great season for us, but tonight was not our time. They got going early in the game and we couldn’t recover from it. I thought we started out pretty well trading buckets, but then we went cold in the second and that was the difference. One game does not define our season. We had 20 wins to tie the school record from 1985 and that is something they should be proud of. You don’t do that unless you have all 13 guys committed. You have special seasons like this when everyone buys into the philosophy and is on the same page.”

Springville improves to 19-5 and plays Pekin tomorrow for the right to go to state. The Huskies close the year 20-5 and say goodbye to seven seniors in McFarland, Laughlin, Lasek, Adamson, Bryce Waters, Derrick Sandburg, and Matt Butler.