Lady Rams Show Fight, But Fall to East

Despite a tough loss to a rival, the Highland’s girls basketball team showed some of its best energy, heart and execution of the whole season in the Rams’ 48-38 loss to East this past Friday.
And even though the team was disappointed with the loss, the first half showed what the team is capable of when clicking.
For Highland junior Hea Vea, she was impressed by what she saw from her teammates.
“This is a whole new team,” Vea said about her team on Friday when compared to the rest of the season.
Against East, the girls finally clicked for the first 16 minutes of the game. Their chemistry was on point and it showed with their best assists, steals, and performance of the season.
For the starters of the game — Nia Olevao, Meredith Kimball, Maggie Hartle, Kennedy Gurgel, and Vada Foster – the game started better than any so far this season.
The first quarter started with high energy from Highland putting the first points on the board. Each player attempted at least one shot and together they demonstrated all the skill and potential this team has to offer.
At the end of the first quarter, Highland led 19-6.
“In the first quarter we were all committed to doing the little things,” Foster said. “We talked and got after the rebounds, doing the things that don’t show on the scoreboard.”
A main focus of the coaches leading up to the game was the importance of energy, and how it propels the players on the court to do their best. A senior on the team, and Highland’s spirit chair, Fetu’u Brown, expressed how their practices this week helped them have a more aggressive mindset.
“We all really wanted it, we had the desire to do our best and really executed that well,” Brown said.
Starting in a man-to-man defense, the girls played a tough and tight first half. With beautiful transitions, Highland was shutting down East’s offense in the first quarter, dominating the court.
One perfectly executed play was by Olevao and Finau Langi. As Olevao brought it down the court, Langi set up a masterful pick-and-roll, putting two points down with a great assist from Olevao.
Olevao continued to fiercely drive to the basket throughout the game successfully. She finished with seven points, but her aggressiveness was on display the entire game.
This is Foster’s first year at Highland, and she has quickly excelled to become varsity’s main point guard. With complete control of the ball, she kept her head in the game and did not waste a second of effort.
The girls tried to keep their footing in the second quarter as East began to climb for a comeback.
As cheerleaders were battling of who could cheer the loudest, the girls were fighting for each second with the ball. With multiple jump balls that included a few girls getting thrown to the ground.
The energy and momentum were starting to dwindle, but the team finished strong at halftime with the score at 25-23 Highland.
The third quarter became a wrestle with the score as East began to take the lead. Unable to stop a few of East’s fast breaks and good three pointer shots, Highland slipped behind on the scoreboard.
Still putting forth effort, the girls kept up their good plays and stayed consistently 1-2 points behind them.
Because of the high number of fouls there were frequent subs as the game moved forward, but this didn’t stop the team’s chemistry.
As the ball movement increases across the court, Highland held a great play at the end of the third quarter. After a defensive steal, two great passes were made from Foster to Olevao to Taylor Gurgel. Taylor then put points on the board increasing both their score and trust in each other’s skill.
As the game transitioned to the fourth quarter, the Highland defense started to press and challenge East’s ball handlers. Sadly, it wasn’t enough to put them ahead.
The team slowly started to get tired, but didn’t give up until the end. They continued to push themselves to sprint after each rebound opportunity and work hard for each possession.
It ended to be a devastating loss for Highland with 48-38 as the final score.
With two games left in the season, they are looking forward to working together to gain some momentum from the successes they did have in this game.
Even though the game did not turn out how the girls were hoping, multiple positive plays came out of this rivalry game.
Hartle scored a season high 15 points. With two three-pointers she is expanding her game with success both under the basket and out at the perimeter making 75% of her shots.
Gurgel was an incredible asset as she was consistently having good plays on both sides of the ball. Making 100% of her free throws and a total of six defensive rebounds.
“With how we played tonight, we are super excited to bring all that we learned from this game to senior night,” Kennedy said.