The Columbus Wildcats picked up a pair of conference basketball victories over the Highland Huskies last night on their home court in the KCII Area Game of the Week.
In a battle for first place in the North division of the Southeast Iowa Super Conference, it would be Highland who started the girls’ game strong, hitting four three-point shots in the first quarter to take a 14-7 lead.
But Columbus would respond behind senior Lily Coil, who scored 13 points in the second period alone and led the Wildcats to tying the game at 24 going into halftime.
Columbus would jump in front and go up by as much as seven in the second half, and while Highland got back within three in the fourth quarter, Coil splashed a pair of three-pointers and hit clutch free throws to put the Huskies away and earn her team the 53-46 win.
Coil finished with a career-high 34 points scored and hit eight total triples to lead the Wildcats to 4-0 in the Super Conference North . She told KCII Sports after the game that this was a big win, but her team will now become the hunted instead of the hunter.
“I think we’ve got a big target on our back,” Coil said. “Everyone’s gunning for that position now and they’re gunning to take us down, so we’ve got to keep working hard.”
Junior Isabel Rendon added 13 points as Columbus moves to 5-1 overall. 11 points each from junior Emersyn Schultz and freshman Kamryn Fink led Highland, who has their 4-0 start to the season and 2-0 beginning to conference play come to an end.
The Columbus boys got off to a strong start, building a seven-point advantage after a quarter of play and using their best offensive half of the season to build a 38-28 halftime lead.
Highland rallied to start the second half, using a 18-6 run to take a brief lead, but big buckets from sophomore Fritz Figaro put the Wildcats up 49-46 going into the final period.
Columbus kept the run going with a 7-0 spurt to start the fourth quarter, and a three-pointer from sophomore Ellis Hills-Carrier with just over two minutes to play put the ‘Cats up 12 on their way to a 64-55 victory.
Wildcats head coach Marcus Hall told KCII Sports he was impressed with how his team having an answer every time Highland tried to get back in the game.
“It was a game of runs,” Hall said. “Sometimes our offensive organization wasn’t great, but we had the right mindset of trying to push it in transition, and a lot of that’s fueled from our defense.”
Hills-Carrier poured in 19 points to pace Columbus, while Figaro had 14 points off the bench and fellow sophomore Drake Marin scored 11 to help the Wildcats get their first conference win of the season and move to 2-3 overall.
Senior Louis Horak’s game-high 20 points were best for Highland and junior Bryce Hazelett added 15, but it would not be enough to keep the Huskies from dropping to 0-2.
While both Columbus teams are off the rest of the week, both Highland squads next play Friday night against Winfield-Mount Union. You can catch the Huskies taking on the Wolves in the next edition of the KCII Area Game of the Week, starting with pregame coverage Friday at 5:30 p.m. streaming on KCIIradio.com.