Hightower Over The Shore

HIGHTOWER RIDING HIGH

On a cold and misty night, Hightower traveled to North Shore for a battle between two teams, both ranked in the TABC Top 10 for the state. The game was delayed because it followed a varsity boy’s game between North Shore and Kingwood which went into double overtime. It was also a night when North Shore’s feeder schools, Cunningham and North Shore Middle were recognized. There’s a wealth of talent from those schools, I remember seeing Bedford and Williams while they were still at Cunningham and even back then I could see they would be special.

The game started out with TJ Jefferson opening the game with a three followed by a North Shore steal leading to a Courtney Williams free throw and it appeared the Mustangs were off and running to victory except no one told the Gilbert twins, Taylor or Tyler, who dominated the inside throughout the game. After leading 11-7 after one, the Hurricanes opened up the lead to ten before baskets by Bedford and Williams cut the lead down to six only to see Raven Lane launch a thirty footer from the hip end the half with the Canes up 28-19.

Hightower came out sluggish to start the second half and saw the Shore cut the lead to three, 28-25, however Lane’s bucket, the first for Hightower that quarter, at the four minute mark gave them a 30-25 advantage and finished the third leading 34-25 as North Shore went cold for the last four minutes. Alaina Heard was one of the stars for the Canes in the final period as she weaved her way through the Mustang defense for a couple of easy layups as Hightower stayed ahead 40-33. A late Williams three cut the lead to two, and a Bedford free throw cut it down to one 46-45 with 37 seconds but the Canes held on and won 51-47.

Tyler Gilbert led Hightower with 14 points, followed by Raven Lane’s 9 and Alaina Heard with 8. North Shore’s Courtney Williams led all scorers with 20 points followed by Katira Young with 9 and KK Williams with 8. As crazy as this season has been so far, these are two of the best teams in Region 3 and if both teams win their districts, they will probably knock each other out to see who makes it to the Regional Final 4.