On February 24, the Highlands High School girls varsity basketball team lost to Newport Central Catholic by a score of 51-48. The team performed very well from three, shooting 42.9% from beyond the arc.

In the heartbreaking loss, the team was led by Freshman Marissa Green, Senior Megan Gessner, and Junior Alyssa Harris scoring 15, 10, and 10, respectively. 

Senior Megan Gessner felt that offensive execution played a big part in the loss.

“I think our execution on offense played a part. We weren’t able to use Marissa as much as we wanted to because they were shutting her down and double-teaming her, so we had to execute by ourselves and weren’t able to do as much as we should have.”

It was a close game throughout, with the game being neck and neck the entire first half.

At the end of the third quarter, the Ladybirds were down by 9, trailing 42-33. 

Although they were able to lessen the gap and make things interesting late in the game, the Thoroughbreds were still able to just hang on and escape by a narrow margin of three.

The team will now have to regroup and prepare for Sunday for the regional tournament.