The Highland Huskies and WACO Warriors both wrapped up the 2025 portion of their schedules Thursday, and each side picked up a win, with the Huskies claiming the girls contest 52-43, and the Warrior boys rolling to a 59-31 win.
The girls game saw two teams on different ends of the win-loss spectrum, but as most would tell you, the records could be thrown out for this one. WACO gave Highland a lot to handle from the opening tip, jumping out to a quick 7-0 lead and forcing an early timeout. While Highland was able to tie things back up with a 7-0 run of their own, the teams could not be separated and headed into the second quarter with a 9-9 score.
What followed was a marathon of a game, with an active whistle drawing lots of fouls and slowing the game down. As the fouls added up, both teams got chances at the free throw line to try and make an impact. However, neither side shot particularly well from the stripe, with Highland going just 9/23 in the first half and WACO putting forth a 3/9 effort. A couple of made shots from the field allowed the Huskies to take a 22-19 halftime lead.
The whistles kept coming in the second half, and with neither side willing to back down, foul trouble became an issue to navigate. Although no one would actually foul out until the final few minutes of the game, both coaches needed to go deep into their bench, asking for quality minutes from some of their substitutes. Highland led after three quarters, 39-31.
In the fourth quarter, things kicked up a notch, with the Huskies finding their lead cut down to four at 39-35. However, back-to-back threes from sophomore point guard Autumn Guseman punched the lead out to 10, and the Warriors wouldn’t threaten again for the rest of the contest. Highland eventually took the win, 52-43, and extended their winning streak to 8 games.
Highland head coach Jody Fink says this was a good win for the Huskies, as he believes WACO is a quality team. “They should not be a 1-5 team. They are probably the best 1-5 team in the state right now. They are right there with every team, they never go away. And that says a lot to Coach Drey and the girls there both.”
Kamryn Fink led all scorers with 20, 13 of which came in the second half. Katelyn Thomann picked up 9. WACO was led by Courtney Waterhouse, whose three triples gave her 13 for the game. Madelyn Farmer had 12, which included 6 in the final quarter. Highland improves to 8-1 overall, while WACO falls to 1-5.
The boys game was more of a traditional rout. With Highland missing some key players due to illness and injury, WACO sought to take advantage through playing the whole court and speeding up the tempo of the game. WACO opened up a double-digit lead on just a few minutes into the first, and never looked back.
With a large lead, WACO was able to go into the bench a little bit more, something head coach Chayse Roth said was always going to be the plan going into the game. With fresh legs on the floor at all times, WACO outpaced the Huskies, eventually cruising to a 28-point win, 59-31.
After the game, Roth graded his team’s performance in the 2025 portion of the schedule. “It’s kind of mediocre, maybe like a B- type of thing. We’ve played some really good basketball, and we’ve played some basketball where we left a lot of opportunities out there on the court. I think it kind of looks like a team, where you can tell we’re a little bit inexperienced at times, and we don’t have a lot of that varsity experience with some of us. Overall, I mean we’re sitting in a pretty good spot.”
The Warriors were led by Hayden Shelman’s 15, but Holden Hughes also hit double-digits with 14. The Huskies were led by Presten Smith’s 12, a solid effort from Smith despite a depleted roster. WACO improves to 4-2 on the season, while Highland falls to 1-6.