Rams Tame Leopards Yet Again

The streak of dominance continues through the 2025-26 season for Highland basketball as the Rams crushed rival East with a final score of 66-48. They say anything can happen in a rivalry game, which is true, but it seems like the Rams have found the solution to escaping with victories.
This marks another consecutive year that Highland has won the “Freak East” game. In fact, the Rams haven’t lost a game at home to Leopards since January 20, 2021. This game seemed to have more implications though, because of the region shakeup.
While the majority of Highland athletics elected to move down to 4A, the men’s basketball team petitioned to stay in 5A competition. It was approved, which was a victory for the team that has, for the past two years, made it to the state semifinal and state title game, respectively, which proves that the Rams can compete with anyone in 5A.
A small downside to the change was that East was moved down to 4A, meaning that Highland and East no longer share a region. That meant that the Freak East game came two months earlier than typical because it had to be played as a preseason game, and therefore the only time Highland will play its arch-rivals in basketball this year. The game was a winner-takes-all situation, and the Rams capitalized.
The game started with the usual sights and sounds of the Freak East matchup, with students showing up hours early doused in fake blood and torn apparel, and cramming into the bleachers.
What was unusual was Highland’s slow start to the game.
“We’ve never actually played good in a Freak East game, we win, but never really play that good,” Rams head coach Chris Jones said.
The first quarter of play started slow with multiple defensive stands and forced turnovers by both teams. The slow play ended abruptly when star Highland center senior Soren Ries, who had missed all the games this season predating East due to injury, made his return known with an emphatic dunk to give Highland the lead and put up the first points of the game. The play jumpstarted the already hostile Black Hole.
“It’s loud,” senior starter Grady Lee said. “It’s more intense because of the crowd. I feel like if you can feed into that, we play better.”
Highland plays fast-paced basketball and relies heavily at times on hitting shots from three-point range, and the shots were just not connecting early in the game. It allowed East to stay within reach by the time the first quarter came to a close.
“We missed probably a dozen wide-open shots that I feel like we usually make,” Jones said.
The first quarter seemed to be just what Highland needed to shake the jitters and settle into its brand of basketball. Highland senior Jordan Oberholtzer and Lee started a Highland run in the second quarter with a couple of quick buckets and some trips to the free throw line. Oberholtzer was taking heat from the Leopard student section to which he smiled and barked back a few words before quieting East with multiple good possessions.
Highland turned up the tempo and East couldn’t keep up. Fast breaks, good passing, and dominating all over the court highlighted the game just before it went into halftime. Highland outscored East 23-9 in the second quarter.
“We played great and we were doing a lot of great things,” Jones said.
Even though Highland was up by almost 20 points at the break, East wouldn’t let that define how the rest of the game would go as the Leopards came out swinging in the third with 10 unanswered points. The Black Hole was left sitting on the bleachers in near silence for nearly four opening minutes in the second half, but again Ries found his way into the paint and got the students on their feet with another electric dunk.
But East just wouldn’t go away.
“Just trusting each other and communicating is big for us. We trust that were all going to play our roles and do our best. That’s what matters and that’s when we roll,” Lee said.
Despite the Leopards rally, senior Elam Zollinger saw his chance to ignite the home crowd after coming off the bench. Zollinger has been a clutch contributor to Highland during the beginning of this season, even if he isn’t a starter. His presence was made known in the game when he hit back-to-back triples to wake the Rams up in the third. Highland had taken East’s best punch and fought back with even more juice.
“They fought hard,” Jones said. “We shared the ball well. We had 15 assists on 18 made shots. Overall, we finished with a good night.”
Midway through the fourth quarter, Highland had regained a 20-point lead, and that proved to be the nail in the coffin as the Rams stayed at a comfortable distance from their rivals for the remainder of the game. By the time the clock hit zeros and the Black Hole had chanted their goodbyes to the East student section, the celebration was on.
“It was a lot of fun. It was my last Freak East and we figured it out,” Lee said.
Highland’s streak is safe for at least another year, and although the future of the Freak East game is uncertain, both teams will continue to work for the day they come back together.
“We’ve got to keep going and working and getting better,” Jones said. “We’ve got to staying humble and we’ll keep grinding.”