On Tuesday, December 10, the Girls Varsity Basketball Team faced off against Holy Cross in a 9th region match up.
Before the game, there were two special awards given to Head Coach Jaime Richey.
Immediately after warmups, Richey was given the game ball to recognize her 451 wins, making her the Winningest Coach in Highlands History. After this award, she was surprised with another award of Outstanding High School Teacher of the Year for the 2024-2025 school year.
“I was extremely surprised about winning Teacher of the Year. I was shocked and very grateful,” Richey said.
The game followed right after the award ceremony at 7:30 PM. The Birds won the tip, but the rest of the game was not easy. Holy Cross is predicted as one of the top teams in the 9th region, and they lived up to that title.
The first quarter was back in fourth, with the biggest lead being only 3 points by Holy Cross at the beginning of the quarter.
The Birds kept fighting and ended the quarter on top with a score of 11-9. Katie Bucher (11) led in scoring in the first quarter with six of the team’s points with Kaylee Mills (11) close behind with four points.
This back and forth action continued into the second quarter with the lead interchanging between the two teams. At the end of the half, the Birds led 29-25. Ty Berry (12) led the team in scoring for the second quarter with 6 points, followed by Bucher with five more.
Throughout the whole third quarter the Birds never let Holy Cross outscore them and either remained tied or with the lead. By the end of the quarter, the score was 43-40.
The Birds continued their lead throughout the fourth quarter until with under a minute left Holy Cross scored two free throws to tie. The Birds stopped Holy Cross and got the ball with 3.7 seconds left but were unable to finish the shot. The score at the end of regulation was 53-53.
This caused overtime. Overtime is four minutes long with a retip and extra timeouts.
“I knew we had to get things right to come out with a win. The coaches told us to be smart with the ball and keep them in front of us on defense, every rebound had to be ours,” Bucher said.
The Birds lost the tip, but there were no points scored until less than a minute left. Holy Cross made a three point play with 16.3 seconds left. The Birds got the ball up the court and called a timeout to draw up a play with 11 seconds left in overtime. The play was drawn up for Kaylee Mills (11) to shoot a three. The ball was passed from Berry to Mills, but her shot was blocked. Avery Barber (11) fights for the rebound and passes the ball back out to Mills who makes the shot with a little under three seconds left. This tied the game 56-56.
“I was nervous having to take the last shot but I felt confident in my abilities to make the shot. After the first shot got blocked and then Avery passed me the ball I felt even more confident even though I was rushed. After I made that shot and saw everyone jumping up and down, I felt really happy and accomplished with what I had done for my team,” Mills said.
Holy Cross got the ball in bounds and threw a half-court shot that hit the front of the rim, missing and forcing the Birds into double overtime.
The Birds won this tip but went down 58-56 quickly. Berry responded with a post move and made a block shot to tie the game back up.
With less than a minute left, the game was tied at 61-61. Berry gets fouled on the shot and goes to the free-throw line for 2 shots. She sinks the first but misses the second, giving the Birds the lead by one. Holy Cross ran the ball down the court, but the Birds’ defense caused a loose ball which ran the time out of the clock.
The Birds won the game, 62-61.
This was a great win for the Birds, putting their record at 3-1. They play their next game at Bellevue High School at 6:00 on December 13 for the Stephanie Wilson Classic.
