It was a SEISC Split Friday night in Winfield, as the #14 in Class 1A Highland Huskie girls and Winfield-Mt. Union boys emerged victorious.

In the girls’ game, it was a tight affair through the first quarter, with the Lady Wolves up three after the opening period. The contest kept its back-and-forth status well into the second, only before the Huskies closed the first half on a run to grab the lead and push it to seven at the break. Highland controlled the pace of the game from there, scoring 11 in the third and nine in the fourth to capture their fifth win of the season by a final of 48-37.

Unofficially, Highland won on the boards 36-27, and committed five fewer turnovers than WMU. The #14 Huskies were led by Hailey Brun and Emersyn Schultz’s 17 apiece, followed by Mackenzie Davis’s six. Kynlee Buffington led the Lady Wolves with 15, followed by Madisen Kellogg’s 11.

After the game, WCHC Player of the Game for the victorious Huskies, Hailey Brun, joined KCII Sports to discuss her performance, as well as her early season success. “We work a lot in practice on threes, and I feel like Emersyn Schultz has been doing amazing with the threes, getting them up. Katie [Herrig] has been really good getting the rebounds with Kamryn [Fink], and it feels good. I’ve been struggling with my threes, and I kinda knocked a couple down tonight, so that felt really good,” Brun said.

Highland Head Coach Jody Fink also joined KCII Sports to talk about the win. “We lacked closeout ability against Columbus, and tonight I thought we did a better job of that, rotating through. We’ve got to trust our other teammates, but I think our kids are in a good position to learn as we do it,” Fink said.

If the running clock was allowed to run before halftime in Iowa high school basketball, it would have been on Friday night in the boys’ game. WMU dominated Highland from first to last buzzer, winning by a final of 74-36. The Wolves used a 27-point first quarter and 30-point second to gain their comfortable advantage in the contest.

Unofficially, WMU outrebounded Highland 35-27 and committed 16 fewer turnovers. Along with scoring on two dunks, Jake Edwards led the way with 25 points, followed by Lane Genkinger’s 18 and Nicholas Sparrow’s 10. Highland was led by Landon Roling’s 11 off the bench.

KCII Sports caught up with WCHC Player of the Game for WMU, Jake Edwards, in the postgame show. “I wouldn’t say we were in a drought [offensively], but we weren’t where we wanted to be at. So, we just wanted to put up a lot of points to show everyone that we can score the ball,” Edwards said.

WMU Head Coach Klay Edwards also talked with KCII Sports after the game about his team’s best offensive outing of the season. “I think the word I used with the kids was having a ‘philosophical change,’” Edwards said. “I didn’t think they would execute it so well in that first half, but I don’t think we’ve played with that pace and tempo in a long time. It was fun to watch!”

With their wins, the Highland girls raise their record to 5-1 overall and 3-1 in conference play ahead of a doubleheader with Wapello next Tuesday, while the WMU boys advance to 3-2 overall and 3-1 in the SEISC ahead of Saturday afternoon’s matchup with Holy Trinity Catholic. The WMU girls and Highland boys fall to 2-5 overall, and 0-3 overall, respectively. The WMU girls will also take on the Crusaders Saturday, while the Highland boys will face Wapello as well on Tuesday. The Area Game of the Week also returns Tuesday for an Alumni Night matchup in Kalona between WACO and Hillcrest.