By JUSTIN BURKHARDT
TopSports.news
Highland Park girls basketball, which was fighting a five-game losing streak entering Tuesday's home Meadowlark Conference game against Kansas City-Washington broke through with a 50-31 home win.
Junior Miluv Cosey led a balanced Highland Park attack with 12 points in Tuesday's 50-31 Meadowlark Conference win over KC-Washington. [File photo/TSN[
Zayah Kincade hit a 3-pointer to get things going for the Scots as they would get off to a 7-0 start before Washington would go on a 12-1 run to take the lead 12-8 to end the first quarter.
The Scots would come out in the second quarter and go on a 6-0 run but Scot junior Miluv Cosey would pick up her second foul of the game and have to go to the bench, which would allow the Wildcats to go on their own run to tie the contest at 16.
Senior Koralee Jones would get two baskets in a row to put her team up 20-16 and they would follow that up with another Kincade 3-pointer to go into the locker room with a 26-20 lead.
Cosey would make her return in the third quarter and score eight straight points of her team-high 12 to stretch the Highland Park lead to 34-22.
“At halftime while I was talking, Miluv really took it to heart,'' Highland Park coach Rob Brown said. "I could tell she was looking at me in my eyes. And she went on that third-quarter run where she had eight straight points, all off steals. If she keeps doing that she'll help us out a lot.”
“It was just the talk that we had during halftime, you know we came together,'' Cosey said. "He told us, we just got to stretch the lead out and I feel that's what we did. I came out with a better mindset and my confidence goes down when I miss a couple shots, but he knows how to motivate me to get out there and let it out. And that's what I feel I did.”
The Scots they would leave the third quarter with a commanding 39-26 lead and the halftime message would be enough as they would go on to pick up the 19-point victory.
The Scots will now turn their attention to USD 501 and city rival Topeka West in a rematch from early in the season when West took a 68-45 victory. Wednesday's game will be at West.
“I told the girls in the locker room, this is a good win for us tonight,'' Brown said. "Especially after that tournament, all weekend we talked about taking stuff in that tournament and improving going into this week.
"So getting that win tonight, a double-digit win was big for us.”
HIGHLAND PARK 50, KC-WASHINGTON 31
KC-Washington 12 8 6 5 -- 31
Highland Park 8 18 13 11 -- 50
KC-Washington (7-8 4-4) -- Emery 6-14 1-4 13, Current 2-12 2-9 7, Martin 2-11 2-4 6, Jones 0-2 2-6 2, Smith 0-8 1-3 1, Harvey 1-3 0-0 2, Mitchell 0-2 0-0 0, Wheeler 0-1 0-0 0, Adams 0-0 0-2 0. Totals 11-53 8-28 31.
Highland Park (5-10, 4-2) -- Cosey 5-12 1-2 12, Kincade 3-21 2-6 11, Barnett 5-8 0-0 10, Jones 4-8 1-6 9, Sanders 0-4 0-2 0, Cameron 2-6 0-4 6, Inyard 1-4 0-0 2, Mitchell 0-1 0-0 0, Atkins 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 20-65 4-20 50.
3-point goals -- KC-Washington 1 (Current), Highland Park 6 (Kincade 3, Cameron 2, Cosey). Total Fouls -- KC-Washington 14, Highland Park 19. Fouled Out — KC-Washington Jones.
