Highlanders topple Yellowjackets

WINSTED — In their previous meetings on the basketball court, Northwestern Regional High School and The Gilbert School split victories: The Lady Highlanders and Gentleman Jackets snagged wins over their crosstown rivals. Northwestern hosted the Jackets Friday, Feb. 19, for an evening of back-to-back games that allowed the Lady Highlanders another win over their rival and gave the boys the opportunity to wash the lingering taste of defeat out of their mouths.

Girls

The Highlanders came out strong, keeping Gilbert on their heels and struggling to generate offense. Northwestern kept the Jackets stumbling through the first and took a slight 9-2 lead into the second.

Gilbert’s defense didn’t look particularly bad, but an entire lack of offensive momentum allowed the Highlanders to keep adding points a few shots at a time. The grinding physicality picked up through the second, and despite seeing their share of slams and tumbles, the Highlanders maintained their lead, 16-4, into halftime.

The Jackets seemed prepared to accept another blow-out defeat, until a surge of offense sparked up in the final quarter. Despite finding their scoring touch in the dying minutes of the game, the Jackets could not pull ahead, and the Lady Highlanders held onto their lead to take the 38-25 victory at home.

An oddly low-scoring game saw Highlander Shanley McClave leading her team in points with 10, while Nicole Folino had six. Courtney Cesca paced the Jackets with five points and Frankie Marino and Courtney Hoxie had four apiece.

Northwestern improves to 15-5 while Gilbert finishes their season 4-16.

Boys

The Highlanders saw a two-quarter lead vanish in their previous game against the Jackets and were clearly looking to regain a bit of honor after seeing their would-be victory unravel on the Jacket court earlier this year.

Northwestern made that statement by coming out and scoring three quick shots in just over a minute. The Highlanders remained ahead 19-10 by the end of the first.

The Jackets really began to have trouble keeping pace with the Highlanders in the second, when consistent offensive pressure and finish put Northwestern far ahead, 34-18.

It was a similar deficit heading into the halftime break that the Jackets battled out of to seal a late-game victory in their previous meeting. The Highlanders were clearly not going to allow that to happen twice in one season and kept layering on offensive pressure to take a strong 57-38 victory at home.

The Highlanders were led in scoring by Bobby Lippincott with 18 points while senior Brendan Tallon finished out the night with 10. Gilbert’s Elyde Romero led his team in scoring with 17 points.

Northwestern’s record breaks the .500 mark, 10-9, while Gilbert falls to 8-10.