The Columbus Wildcats swept a basketball doubleheader with their conference rivals the Highland Huskies Friday in Riverside. The Columbus girls topped Highland in a thriller, but it was the Huskies who dominated the middle part of the game, responding to a 22-10 Wildcat lead in the first quarter by cutting the deficit to two points at halftime.

Highland jumped in front 46-40 going into the final period, but Columbus had a rally of their own ready down the stretch and sent the game to overtime tied at 57. The Wildcats outscored the Huskies 7-0 in the extra session to win 64-57 and remain all alone in first place in the North division of the Southeast Iowa Super Conference.

Isabel Rendon and Lily Coil had big games to lead Columbus to the comeback win. The junior Rendon scored a team-high 24 points and had five steals on defense, while Coil put up 23 points, four steals and seven rebounds.

Fellow senior Ariana Vergara added 12 points, six rebounds and seven assists as the Wildcats improve to 11-1 in the Super Conference North and 13-2 overall.

Despite a loss, freshman Kamryn Fink was phenomenal for Highland, posting game highs of 27 points and 22 rebounds. Junior Emersyn Schultz also had a double-double with 12 points and 13 boards for the Huskies, who drop to 10-5, including a 6-5 record in conference play.

Columbus had a 43-34 lead at the end of a high-scoring first half with Highland in the boys’ game, but an 18-8 run to start the third quarter put the Wildcats up big, and they would ultimately knock off the Huskies 74-51.

Ellis Hills-Carrier scored 22 points to pace Columbus, while fellow sophomore Drake Marin had 14 points and junior Drew Totemeier finished with 12. Senior Juan Chairez added 11 points and seven rebounds as the Wildcats raise their record to 6-8, including a 4-7 mark in the Super Conference North.

Meanwhile, Highland falls to 1-9 in league action and 1-11 in total. While the Huskies next play tomorrow night against Winfield-Mount Union, Columbus is back to action this evening against Van Buren County.

You can catch Wildcat basketball tonight with the KCII Area Game of the Week starting with pregame at 5:30 streaming on KCIIradio.com.