The Hamilton Heights girls basketball team is in the midst of one of its busier stretches in recent history, as the Huskies are playing four games in five days this week.
Heights won its first two games, but lost the third one Thursday night, falling to Yorktown 47-40 in a home contest. The Tigers led 11-5 after the first quarter, with Bayleigh Runner scoring all five of the Huskies’ points.
Yorktown led 19-9 late in the second period before Hailey Champion made a floater to cut it to 19-11; that would be the halftime score. Heights played even with the Tigers in the second half, but just couldn’t get all the way back.
“We have all sorts of excuses that we could make,” said Huskies coach Keegan Cherry. “This being our third game in four days.” But the coach pointed to Heights’ struggles from long range – the Huskies made only 1 of 24 3-point attempts – and not having “the toughness to get the ball inside, try to score inside and get fouled.”
“When you’re not making shots, that’s the result,” said Cherry. “We did battle, we didn’t quit, and I’m confident I’d like to play them again in sectional.”
Runner led Heights with 16 points and also handed out four assists. Lauryn Wiley collected seven rebounds.
The Huskies are 10-10 and will finish up their week with a road trip to Benton Central tonight. Heights will play the Class 3A No. 4 Bison in the third-place game of the Hoosier Conference playoffs; tip-off is at 8 p.m.
“Benton Central’s really good,” said Cherry. “That’s going to be a huge challenge for us, and that’d be our fourth game in five nights. We can make all kinds of excuses and feel sorry for ourselves, or we can go up there and compete and try to get better this last week or so before the tournament.”
Yorktown 47, Hamilton Heights 40
Heights FG FT TP PF
Jillian Osswald 0-8 4-5 4 3
Bayleigh Runner 5-17 5-5 16 4
Payton Dissett 1-6 2-2 4 1
Lauryn Wiley 4-11 0-0 8 4
Abby Christiansen 0-0 0-0 0 3
Mykayla Moran 2-3 1-2 5 0
Hailey Champion 1-1 0-0 2 0
Chloe Henderson 0-0 1-2 1 0
Totals 13-46 13-16 40 15
Score by Quarters
Yorktown 11 8 12 16 – 47
Heights 5 6 12 17 – 40
Heights 3-point shooting (1-24) Runner 1-11, Osswald 0-5, Wiley 0-5, Dissett 0-3.
Heights rebounds (22) Wiley 7, Osswald 4, Runner 3, Dissett 3, Christiansen 3, Henderson 1, Moran 1.
Hamilton Heights coach Keegan Cherry talks with his team right before the start of the fourth quarter during the Huskies’ girls basketball game with Yorktown on Thursday. (Richie Hall)