Fewer rivalries are more intense than the one featured tonight in the Area Game of the Week between the Highland Huskies and the Lone Tree Lions.

The Lady Lions of Lone Tree captured their eighth win on the season in their last outing against Hillcrest 67-36. Finley Jacque led the way with 23. This season, Lone Tree scores 56 points-per-game and gives up 37, shooting 34 percent from the floor, 21 percent from three and 50 percent at the line. The Lady Lions continue an active defensive season, poking out over 16 steals a night. Individually, Jacque scores 16 a game as well as gathers 4.2 steals and 3.8 assists.

The #14 in Class 1A Highland girls have opened 2025 by going 1-1 with a loss at home to Pekin and a win on the road at Louisa-Muscatine to come into tonight’s game in Lone Tree 7-3 overall and 5-3 in the SEISC North. Kamryn Fink had a 15-point, 15-rebound double-double in Highland’s win over the Falcons Saturday. The #14 Huskies score 54 points-per-game, and give up 47, shooting over 35 percent from the floor, 27 percent from three and 48 percent at the line. Highland’s 44.3 boards a night are second-best in 1A. Fink leads the red and white individually with 17.3 points and 16.2 boards a contest.

Lone Tree Head Coach Ryan Shelman joined KCII Sports live on the Area Game of the Week postgame show Saturday following their first victory of 2025 against Hillcrest to preview their rematch with the Huskies. “We’re going to have to play good defense. We’re going to have to find shooters. We’re going to have to rebound like we did tonight. We’re going to have to clean up the defensive effort. Big thing for us is we’ve got to take care of the basketball. We can’t have unforced turnovers,” Shelman said.

Highland Head Coach Jody Fink joined KCII Sports on Saturday’s edition of the Coaches Corner to talk about what his team needs to clean up if they want to capture the season sweep of the Lady Lions. “We’ve got to finish, and these are some of the growing pains for our youth we knew we were going to go through. Hopefully we can overcome it,” Fink said.

Highland leads the girls’ series 20-14 dating back to 2006. Lone Tree has taken four of the last five in the series.

The Lone Tree boys started 2025 with a home loss to Hillcrest Saturday by a final of 69-47. Gray Spilman had a career-high 14 for the Lions. This season, Lone Tree is 2-6 overall and 2-5 in the Superconference North and scores 55 a game while giving up 61. The Lions shoot 43 percent from the field, 28 percent from three and 56 percent at the stripe. Lone Tree pulls down 26 boards a night. Emmett Burke is the best in the Superconference North with his 5.6 assists per game and is also the leading Lion with over 16 points-per-game.

The Highland boys have dropped four of their last five contests, and now sit at 1-6 overall and in conference play after a defeat Saturday on the road at Louisa-Muscatine by 19. Logan McFarland had 17 in the loss to the Falcons. The Huskies score 45 points-per-game, and give up 67, shooting 37 percent from the floor, 20 percent from three and 50 percent at the line. Highland matches Lone Tree on the boards with 26 a night. Individually, Bryce Hazelett scores almost 14 a night for Highland.

Lone Tree Head Coach Jonathan Chaney joined KCII Sports on the Area Game of the Week postgame show after his team’s loss to Hillcrest Saturday to give his perspective on Highland. “They’re [Highland is] very scrappy. They’re not a big team. They don’t have a lot of height. They don’t have a lot of size, but they have a lot of grit. They’re a very gritty, scrappy team,” Chaney said.

Highland Head Coach Bill Zywiec talked with KCII Sports on Saturday’s edition of the Coaches Corner to discuss his team’s recent issue with turnovers ahead of their matchup with the Lions on the road tonight. “We need to keep them [turnovers] down to the low teens to single digits to give us more opportunities to score on the offensive end. Defensively, we have to do a little better job rebounding the basketball and pushing it up the court,” Zywiec said.

The Lions lead the boys’ series 20-12 dating back to 2009 and have taken the last four.

You can hear tonight’s rivalry doubleheader between Highland and Lone Tree streaming exclusively online at KCIIRadio.com on the KCII3 Stream, beginning with pregame coverage of the girls game at 5:30, tipoff at 6, and coverage of the boys game to follow from Lone Tree High School.