By Rick Peterson
TopSports.news
Highland Park's girls have a much tougher task in store Tuesday night, with the Scots facing Atchison at Topeka West in a game that is likely to decide the Meadowlark Conference championship.
But the Scots did exactly what they needed to do to get ready for that showdown, turning in a solid wire-to-wire performance in Monday's 59-8 conference romp past Kansas City-Harmon at West.
Freshman Pearmella Carter scored a game-high 16 points in Highland Park's 59-8 win over KC-Harmon Monday night. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Senior Angelique Gowan-Britt (3) had 9 points, 10 rebounds, 9 steals and 8 assists in Highland Park's 59-8 win over KC-Harmon Monday night. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Highland Park improved to 10-5 overall and 5-1 in the Meadowlark and will face an Atchison team that is 9-6, 6-1. Atchison took a 56-48 win over the Scots on Feb. 5.
"This was a good tuneup game for us,'' Highland Park coach Rob Brown said. "We wanted to get a couple of girls moving the right way and working on a little bit of a zone offense because we'll see zone tomorrow from Atchison.
"This was about getting ready for tomorrow. Tomorrow's a big one for us. We'll have all our girls back for tomorrow, so we'll be prepared for Atchison.''
Highland Park scored the first 35 points of Monday's game, including a 19-0 first-quarter advantage, before the Hawks drained a 3-pointer to end the half.
The Scots tacked on nine more straight points to open up a 44-3 lead early in the fourth quarter before the Hawks hit another 3 and Highland Park ended the game with a 15-0 run.
Highland Park used 13 players on the night, with eight cracking the scoring column.
Freshman Pearmella Carter paced the Scots with 16 points while junior Tahtionna Broils added 10 points, senior Angelique Gowan-Britt nine points and freshman Alieah Austin eight points with a pair of 3-pointers.
Gowan-Britt also had 10 rebounds, 9 steals and 8 assists for the Scots.
HIGHLAND PARK GIRLS 59, KC-HARMON 8
KC-Harmon 0 3 0 5 -- 8
Highland Park 19 16 6 18 -- 59
KC-Harmon (1-13, 0-7) -- Medina 2-6 0-0 5, Martinez-Huerta 0-3 0-0 0, Moreno 0-1 0-0 0, Rosales 0-2 0-0 0, Lopez 1-6 0-0 3, Tobias 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 3-19 0-0 8.
Highland Park (10-5, 5-1) -- Gowan-Britt 3-7 3-5 9, Broils 5-13 0-2 10, Chandler 0-0 0-0 0, Carter 6-8 4-6 16, A. Austin 3-5 0-0 8, Grace 2-5 2-2 6, Cosey 1-2 0-0 2, Paredes 0-1 0-0 0, Jones 3-8 0-0 6, Rice 0-2 0-0 0, Barnett 1-1 0-0 2, Cooper 0 0-0 0, Atkins 0-3 0-0 0. Totals 24-55 9-15 59.
3-point goals -- KC-Harmon 2 (Medina, Lopez), Highland Park 2 (A. Austin 2). Total fouls -- KC-Harmon 13, Highland Park 5. Fouled out -- none. Technical foul -- none.
