The Highland CC women's basketball team once again proved their worth as they were victorious over the Labette Community College Cardinals in the semi-final Region VI Tournament game, for the third time this season, 76-50.
After receiving Freshman of the Year and 1st Team All-Conference honors, Mariane Carvalho took control of the game making 5-9 behind the arc, pulled down career high 13 rebounds and totaled 32 points. Sophomore Szonja Vukov, a 1st Team All-Conference honoree, had her 11th double-double this season making her career total 26 which puts her #1 All-Time career double-doubles here at HCC. She pulled down 10 rebounds and contributed 17 points on the evenings win. Jameka Dowell, also a 1st Team All-Conference honoree, finished in double digit points with 13. Freshman Niccolly Ramalho came up with 8 rebounds and 6 assists and Blaize Burgess went 2-5 from the three-point line.
Highland out rebounded the Cardinals by quite the margin of 42 - 23 and the Scotties also shot 69% from the free throw line while the Cardinals only shot 45%.
Head coach BJ Smith commented on the game in his post-game interview, "All wins this time of year are good wins; there's no such thing as a bad play-off win. I thought we did a lot of really good things. Our defense on a whole was really good...we had a lot of kids make plays which was really important. Anytime you win in the play-offs, especially a team you've already played twice and beaten, they're hard to beat a third time. This was a good win for us and we're happy to be back in the finals."
The Scotties are now 28-3 overall on the season. They will travel down to Park City, KS to play in the Hartman Arena on Wednesday afternoon at 1:00PM. This Region VI championship game will feature the Highland Scotties against Johnson County Community College. Highland has lost to the Cavaliers twice this season and are looking to take this third and most important win.