By G. MICHAEL GRAHAM

Fort Thomas Matters Sports Reporter

The Highlands Bluebirds girls basketball team completed its undefeated run through 36th District regular-season play Monday.

The Bluebirds handled the host Bellevue Lady Tigers, 67-31 to finish 4-0 in district play and clinch the top seed in the district tournament in February at Newport Central Catholic. Highlands improved to 14-3 overall and Bellevue dropped to 7-9 overall.

Turnovers made the huge difference in this game. Bellevue committed 29 on 18 Highlands steals and the Bluebirds had just six with one Lady Tiger steal. Zoie Barth, Kristyn Lukjan and Alex Combs recorded three thefts each for Highlands with Haley Coffey, Kiersten Clukey and McKenzie Leigh recording two each.

That led to a huge difference in the amount of shots each team took and in points per possession. Highlands scored 1.09 points a possession and limited Bellevue to just .48.

The Bluebirds hit 27-of-65 shots for 42 percent, including 4-of-21 from three-point range putting four players in double figures. They also made 9-of-13 free throws for 69 percent.

Coffey led Highlands with 17 points making 6-of-10 shots including 2-of-5 from downtown. Leigh followed with 12 points to go with four assists and four blocked shots. Barth and Combs followed with 12 and 11 points respectively.

Bellevue made just 10-of-36 shots for 28 percent, including 1-of-7 three-point tries for 14 percent. The Lady Tigers also made 10-of-15 free-throw tries for 67 percent.

Highlands pulled away with a 23-2 run in the second half. The Bluebirds led just 26-22 at halftime and 45-25 after three quarters playing in their first game in nine days.

The Bluebirds return to action Wednesday in a make-up game. They travel to Maysville to face the Mason County Lady Royals (11-6). Game time is 7:30 p.m.

 

Fort Thomas Sports: Highlands pulls away from Bellevue; NC-Ryle make-up date announced

Bellevue is very young and to be only down four at the half is very surprising. Coach Sorrell and his staff are really doing some good things with this porgram.