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By JUSTIN BURKHARDT

TopSports.news

After picking up their first Meadowlark Conference victory by forfeit against Kansas City-Schlagle on Tuesday, Highland Park's girls were hoping to find their first in-game win since December 16th in Friday's home game against Atchison.

But the Lady Phoenix controlled things most of the way en route to a decisive 66-42 win over the Scots.

Koralee Jones, Highland Park

Zayah Kincaid, Highland Park

The Highland Park-Atchison game has determined the league champion over the years since the Scots entered the Meadowlark and this one would be all Lady Phoenix as the Phoenix would get the jump and score the first 4 points before the Lady Scots would find the basket via senior Koralee Jones hitting a floater to get the Scots on the board.

Atchison senior Kaiya Downing would then find the basket to put Atchison up 6-2 and the Phoenix would never look back.

After Atchison went up 13-7 junior Zayah Kincaid would hit her first of three 3-pointers on the night to get the Scots within three at 13-10. But Atchison would go on a 7-0 run to end the first quarter and take a 20-10 lead into the second quarter.

The Scots would get within five at 22-17 and then the Phoenix would go on a 9-0 run before the Scots' Kincaid would find the basket. The Scots trailed 33-22 at halftime and the third quarter would see the Phoenix outscore the Scots 17-7 and the fourth quarter would be all Phoenix as they would finish it off with a 66-42 win.

The Lady Scots would be led in scoring by Jones and Kincaid as they both scored 14 points.

Atchison was led in scoring by sophomore Alondra Herrera, who would lead all scorers with 27 points, and Downing, who had 15 points.

The Lady Scots will play KC-Sumner and KC-Harmon xext week.

ATCHISON 66, HIGHLAND PARK 42

Atchison        20 13 17 16 -- 66

Highland Park 10 12 7 13 -- 42

Atchison (4-6 4-0) — Herrera 13-25 0-0 27, Downing 7-15 1-1 15, Clem 3-10 2-4 10, Burge 5-11 0-5 10, Tate 0-0 0-0 0, Ross 2-3 0-0 4, Sneller 0-1 0-0, Wesley 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 30-65 3-10 66.

Highland Park (2-5 1-2) -- Kincaid 5-16 1-1 14, Jones 7-20 0-2 14, Cosey 1-9 0-2, Barnett 2-4 1-2 5, Hooper 0-4 0-0 0, Inyard 0-2 3-4 3, Cameron 0-2 0-0 0, Sanders 1-3 1-1 3, Atkins 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 16-62 6-12 42. 3-point goals -- Atchison 3 (Clem 2, Herrera), Highland Park 4 (Kincaid 3, Cosey). Total fouls -- Atchison 20, Scots 13. Fouled out -- none.

By JUSTIN BURKHARDT

TopSports.news

Highland Park battled Class 4A No. 2 ranked and undefeated Atchison Friday at Hi Park in a game that had Meadowlark Conference ramifications early in the season as both of these teams are usually facing each other with the league championship on the line.

Junior JoJo Kingcannon led Highland Park with 18 points in the Scots' 57-51 loss to No. 2-ranked Atchison Friday night. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]

The Scots had never lost to the Phoenix since entering the league and you didn’t need to let first-year head coach Nate Wallace know how big this game was.

And even though Atchison was able to hold off Highland Park 57-51, Wallace saw a lot of positives from his team.

Atchison would get things started with freshman Trey’von Gillum scoring the game's first five points before Scot sophomore Davion Anderson would get his squad on the board with a jumper to get the score to 5-2.

Atchison would score four more to go up 9-2 and then the Scots would go on a 11-0 run by spreading the ball around and getting everybody involved to see their first lead of the night at 13-9.

The second quarter would see three lead changes, with the Scots trailing 28-24at halftime.

“Oh, we're in great shape,'' Wallace said. "I knew that we'd eventually start making shots. We shoot a lot in practice, so I'm not really worried about shooting. I know that we're going to do that. At halftime, it was just, 'Hey, look where we're at.' That's probably the lowest score in a half we've had all season because we hung our hat on everybody rebounding. We had five guys rebounding. We were going to stay on that focus and let them know it's a game of runs they came out and punched us in the mouth, 9-0, 9-2.

"We knew that would happen. So we've just got to answer the run. So they make runs, we make runs.”

Junior G'Honi Montgomery reacts to one of his two 3-pointers in Friday's 57-51 loss to Atchison. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN].

Gillum would get things started in the third quarter with a 3 ball, Atchison would go on a 6-2 run to put the game at 34-26 before Scots junior G’Honi Montgomery would hit two huge 3-pointers in a row to get the Scots within two at 34-32 and then Anderson would hit his only 3-pointer of the night to give his team the lead at 35-34.

Each team would trade blows to escape the third quarter with Highland Park trailing the Phoenix 40-37 going into the fourth quarter.

“I'm never surprised with G’Honi,'' Montgomery said. "He is one of our most unselfish guys on the team. He's playing out of position. He really is a guard, but he is so strong. I call him little man. He's out there doing everything he can. So I give him those (3s). If he takes them, it's because he knows when to take them, he knows how to take them. He works on them.”

The fourth quarter would see the Scots' fearless leader, junior JoJo Kingcannon go on a tear as he would score 12 of his team-high 18 points in the fourth quarter.

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