By ISAAC DEER
TopSports.news
Tuesday night's 65-23 romp over Meadowlark Conference foe Kansas City-Washington was everything Highland Park girls basketball coach Rob Brown could've asked for in his team.
"No matter who we play, we just need to continue playing the right way," Brown said. "Moving the ball around with Millie (Amelia Ramsey) touching the ball and everyone else getting touches is what we want. Defensively, we've been able to execute different defenses that we've been trying to touch base on and work on."
Sophomore Amelia Ramsey scored 18 points and grabbed 17 rebounds in Highland Park's 65-23 Meadowlark Conference win over KC-Washington Tuesday night. [File photo/TSN]
Highland Park extended its win streak to four games with the 42-point conference win over Washington. Last year Highland Park's longest win streak was two games.
Last season the message was "trust the process." In the 2021-2022 campaign, Highland Park went 4-17 with a lot of painful growth.
With Highland Park sitting at 9-3 on the season, the potential for this young team is tremendous.
"We talk about last year a lot," Brown said. "Last year was a foundational year for us. We were trying to get those (roster) numbers up. Those seniors from last year built the foundation for us to get us in the right direction. The seniors got the young ones ready for what they are doing now. So we want to keep looking forward and try to keep getting better and better."
The most notable standout in Highland Park's 42-point romp on Tuesday night came from 5-foot-5 junior Angelique Gowan-Britt. Gowan-Britt recorded a triple-double and neared a quadruple-double, recording 13 points, 12 rebounds, 11 assists and six steals on the night.
"Getting the rebounds and steals on defense really got me going," Gowan-Britt said. "I like to be everywhere, so everybody doesn't have to work as hard. We got everybody that can do their part. We all learn fast, so we can easily go in there and pick up on everything. We go fast, and we boom. We do a great job of working as a team."
Sophomore 6-foot standout Ramsey had a game-high 18 points. Along with Ramsey's 18 points, she recorded 17 rebounds, five blocks and a pair of steals.
"We call Amelia 'double-double Mills' for obvious reasons," Brown said. Amelia's double-doubles are efficient double-doubles."
Sophomore guard De'Asia Sanders was right behind Ramsey in scoring with 17 on the night.
The Lady Scots didn't allow KC Washington more than six points in any of the four quarters.
Although Highland Park shot 36.5 percent from the field, they could crash the boards and scoop up their misses whenever they missed shots. Of Highland Park's 44 rebounds, 38 were offensive rebounds.
It was evident that Highland Park would have a quick night in the "Pressure Cooker" immediately.
A pair of 20-6 runs in the first and second quarters gave the Lady Scots a 40-12 lead at the halftime break, allowing them to have one more quarter of quality basketball before they could put the game on autopilot.
After a quick 13-5 third quarter for Highland Park, the Lady Scots were granted a running clock in the fourth quarter.
Highland Park (9-3, 5-0) will hope to extend its win streak to five games on Thursday when they host Schlagle.
"We need to keep the excitement up," Brown said. "We were on the other end of this record last year. We need to keep hyping up the league race, get a league championship for the first time in a long time and try to host and win sub-state. We want to go to Emporia and show them how it looks."
HIGHLAND PARK GIRLS 65, KC WASHINGTON 23.
KC Washington – 6 6 5 6 – 23
Highland Park – 20 20 13 12 – 65
KC Washington (3-8, 2-5) – Johnson 2 3-5 7, Reynold 4 1-4 9, Alexander 1 2-2 4, Drew 0 0-2 0, Hunter 0 0-2 0, Lockridge 1 0-0 2, Rodriguez 0 1-2 1. Total – 8 7-15 23.
Highland Park (9-3, 5-0) – A. Gowan Britt 5 3-6 13, Sanders 7 1-3 17, Broils 2 0-0 6, White 1 2-6 2, Ramsey 6 5-6 18, Parker-Brown 2 1-3 7. Total – 23 12-23 65.
3-point goals – Highland Park 7 (Sanders 2, Broils 2, Parker-Brown 2, Ramsey). Total fouls – Highland Park 12, KC Washington 16. Fouled out – none. Technical fouls – none.
