The Highland boys’ basketball team led the Chapel Field Lions by one point, at two points in the third quarter.

But then things fell apart.

The Lions outscored the Huskies by 12 points in the third quarter on their way to handing the Huskies a 69-48 loss on Wednesday at Highland High School.

“We played a nice half in the first half, and then they come out in the second half and we talked about (Mikey) Bonagura, (Noah) Swart and (Jonah) McDuffie,” Highland coach Mike Milliman said. “They’re good players. They penetrate well, they stop and check for nice jump shots. Hey, shoot the 3. They’re just good players. They went out and put it to us, and we didn’t respond.”

McDuffie, Swart and Bonagura did most of the damage, accounting for 57 of the Lions’ 69 points. McDuffie scored a game-high 24 points, while Swart and Bonagura added 18 and 15 respectively.

“They did a nice job,” Milliman said. “In the first half, we had a six-point lead and then on the transition hoops they scored, and they got a little lead. We didn’t get back on defense and they scored. We talked about that. You’ve got to win the first three steps, and we didn’t do that.”
Reid Berean led the Huskies with 18 points, and Josh Bishop added 14 points.

That six-point lead had all but disappeared after the first quarter as the Huskies entered the second clinging to a one-point lead.

The Lions took the lead away on a basket by Swart to start the second before Berean took the lead back. However, McDuffie gave the Lions the lead for the remainder of the half when he knocked down a basket, giving the Lions a 24-23 lead and starting a 6-0 run to give the Lions some breathing room.

The Huskies cut that lead in half by halftime, entering the break trailing 33-30 before early third-quarter baskets by Matt Dubois and Bishop gave the Huskies’ a 34-33 lead.

However, McDuffie hit a short jumper with 6:08 to start another 6-0 run that gave the Lions a 5-point lead.

“One of the things we talked about initially was getting the ball inside,” Milliman said. “That’s what we did a couple of times, and we converted. And then we had a steal, came down and didn’t get the best shot. They scored six points after that to go right back up on us.”

Baskets by Berean and Bishop cut the lead to one point again, but the Lions put the foot on the gas pedal with 4:09 left as they went on a 7-0 run to take a 50-40 lead.

The Huskies cut the lead to seven points on a free throw by Berean and a layup by George Simmons, but another 6-0 Chapel Field run sent the Huskies into the final quarter trailing by 15 points.

The Huskies only had one day to lick their wounds before they visited Dover on Friday. They came home with a 56-38 win.

“It’s been an up-and-down year,” Milliman said. “Even some of the games we lost, we played well; and then some of the games, lots of times when a little adversity hits, we just seem to not be able to come back against that adversity. That’s a life skill that you want to be able to do, and that’s what we’re talking about.”