The Highline women’s basketball team opened the season with two losses as the young squad finds their groove.
Last week, the Lady T-Birds lost to Big Bend 67-46 in their home-opener and fell short against Skagit Valley 55-53.
This year, the women’s basketball roster retained two starters after a trying 2021-22 season and added nine freshmen players.
Each player has individual talent that can contribute to the team’s success this season, said sophomore Hi’ilani Arai.
Last year Highline finished 6-14 overall and 3-9 in conference, a sixth-place finish in the NWAC West. Throughout the season, Highline suffered a depleted roster of ten due to injury, making it difficult for the squad to perform their best on the court.
This season, the team is working on their court chemistry, said Arai.
Highline had the chance to do so with back-to-back games at the ThunderDome last week.
On Saturday, Highline faced off against Big Bend in a preseason match. The Lady T-Birds fell to the Lady Vikings 67-46, playing catch-up from the start.
The Vikings broke the game open in the first quarter with a 23-13 lead. The Thunderbirds shot 6-16 from the field and had seven personal fouls which allowed opponents six points from free throws on top of the Vikings’ 8-12 shooting.
In the second quarter, Big Bend continued to widen their lead with a score of 21-9.
At halftime, the score was 44-22 with Highline trailing. Up until then, Big Bend had bested Highline on both fronts with 19 rebounds to 13 and a 17-29 field goal shooting to Highline’s 8-25.
The Vikings sailed further ahead in the third quarter where they had the largest lead of 26 points. Despite the uphill battle, Highline matched Big Bend in points per quarter with a score of 16-16.
In the fourth quarter, Highline led in points with 7-8, forcing five turnovers from the Lady Vikings. The early lead from Big Bend made it difficult for Highline to make a comeback and the Vikings closed out the game 67-46.
“In the Big Bend match we started off a bit slow, but we came into the second half strong. We came to the conclusion that we need to have that energy from the start and finish strong,” said guard Hi’ilani Arai.
Sophomore Savannah Arneach led Highline in points with 18 on 7-16 field shooting and 13 rebounds.
On Tuesday, Highline lost to Skagit Valley 55-53 with a tie-breaking layup in the final seconds of the game.
Although Higline came up short, they bested the opponent in three out of five major statistical categories. But Highline’s ball handling errors allowed the Cardinals to capitalize with 25 points off of turnovers.
In the first quarter, Skagit Valley leveraged Highline turnovers to take the lead, 19-11. The Lady T-Birds showed they could hang with a score of 10-10 in the second quarter. Three-pointers from Highline’s Aulani Benitez and Ronie Lyn Butihi helped to slim the Cardinal lead.
At halftime, Skagit Valley led 29-21. The Cardinals demonstrated better ball control by only allowing 7 turnovers to Highline’s 16 in the first half.
Highline kept up with the Cardinals in the third quarter, trailing by 10 points with 45-35 on the scoreboard. In the fourth, the Lady T-Birds made an impressive scoring sprint of 18 points to the opponent’s 10.
With 0:55 left in the fourth, the score was tied 53-53 after two free throws from Highline’s Aulani Benitez. Hoping to force the overtime, Highline tried for a three-pointer but missed. Skagit Valley rebounded and made the game-winning layup with 0:02 on the clock, ending the game 55-53.
Freshman Aulani Benitez led Highline with 5-7 field shooting and a pair of three-pointers out of her 15 points. Freshman Sarah Gatluak added 11 points for the Thunderbirds.
Next up, the women’s basketball team travels to Bellevue to play the Bulldogs on Tuesday, Nov. 29. Tipoff is at 6:00 p.m.