Highland and East High rivalry has always been one for the books. Going into Friday night’s game, the players were nervous, excited and altogether ready to compete against their rivals.

Highland overall led the first half of the game, but East’s shooting and fast-moving offense outscored the Rams 65-56 to get the win.

The two teams went back and forth throughout the first half with neither leading by more than 5 points. Highland led by four at halftime but the Leopards pulled away in the third quarter outscoring the Rams 42-41. The closeness of the score at the end of the third quarter made the players lean too heavily on chance and didn’t execute every shot accordingly. Because of the Ram’s late shots, East took the win at the final buzzer.

“Our shots were weak,” junior Oscar Maxfield said. “This was such an important game to us, and we let it go by not thinking before we shot the ball.”

The fourth quarter was definitely the most fast-paced aggressive one of all. The players were so focused on who was going to take the gold, that fouls were called on each team left and right. Because it was a rivalry game, aggression was at an all time high. Highland unfortunately had more fouls called on them, leading the Leopards to have more chances for easy free throw points.

Because of East’s size advantage, the Ram’s defensive strategies weren’t working as well as they had planned them too.

“East has a huge size advantage,” Maxfield said. “We just couldn’t quite block their shots enough to overtake the game.”

A tough loss for the Rams, but more to look forward to coming ahead. As region continues on, Highland’s next game will be Tuesday, January 24th at Box Edler.