Hamilton Heights played a Hoosier Conference East Division game last Saturday, this time hosting Northwestern in the Huskies’ annual Pink-Out game, which honors those affected by breast cancer. After the game, Heights presented a check in the amount of $1,435.04 to the iWin Foundation, a breast-cancer support charity.
The game between the Huskies and the Tigers was hard-fought, with Northwestern winning 35-34. The Tigers led 8-7 after one quarter; Heights came back to lead 14-10 in the second period, but Northwestern went on an 8-0 run, then led 23-19 at halftime.
A steal and basket by McKenna Layden gave the Tigers a 25-19 advantage, but back-to-back 3-pointers from Hadleigh Cherry and Hickok tied the game at 25-25. Layden and Runner then exchanged layins to make the score 27-27, but a layin by Lexi Hale finished the third quarter and put Northwestern up 29-27.
The Tigers led for most of the fourth quarter until there was under a minute left, when Hickok made a steal and Runner scored to put Heights up 34-33. Hale answered that with a layin seconds later, and that proved to be the winning basket.
“It turned out to be exactly how we thought it would be,” said Keegan Cherry. “We had the best player on the floor, but they had the biggest team on the floor. And their size is a problem for us. They really extended into that 3-2 zone. Not having a true post player that we can work through and play through was a big hindrance for us tonight. But credit to them, their defense is pretty good.”
Runner scored 15 points, followed by Rhoton with eight points, Hickok with six and Hadleigh Cherry with five.
The Huskies are 1-1 in East Division play and 12-3 overall. Heights finishes up its division schedule this week, playing at Western on Tuesday and Tipton Saturday.