The last meeting between the Highland Huskies and the Onteora Eagles was up-tempo affair that saw the teams combining for 135 points, and the Huskies winning by three points.

It was clear after one quarter that their second meeting was going to be different.

The teams combined for 16 points after the first quarter, with the Huskies leading by two, but the Huskies pulled away in the second quarter, posting a 51-35 win over the Eagles in a Mid Hudson Athletic League Division III boys’ basketball game on Friday at Highland High School.

“It was a tough start,” said Reid Berean, who led the Huskies with a game-high 27 points. “They’re a really good team, obviously, and they’ve been performing really well. So, it was tough, but once we got started, I think our team executed very well.”

The Eagles actually led early, before Berean’s basket with 3:19 left in the first quarter, cut the lead to a single point. Then about a minute later, Josh Bishop knocked down a foul shot to tie the game at 5-5.
Berean’s basket gave the Huskies the lead for good, and they never trailed again. They led 9-7 after the first quarter.

“The tempo of this game was much slower,” Highland coach Mike Milliman said. “We – doing our press – slowed their tempo down, and their defense this time – although Reid did have 27 points – they were collapsing on him, and it took us a while to get going.”

The Eagles closed to a point with 4:44 left in the second quarter on a basket by Noah Stern, and the Huskies finally got going.

After Stern’s basket, Michael Forzano answered with a 3-point basket starting a 9-0 Highland run that gave the Huskies a 22-12 lead. Berean’s layup with 31.6 seconds left in the quarter sent the Huskies into the locker room with a 12-point lead, their largest of the game to that point.

“We started really attacking the basket and really working for the best shot we could, instead of settling for a hard shot,” Berean said. “We really tried working for the best shot we could.”

The Huskies expanded their lead to 41-25 after the third quarter, but a 3-pointer by Adam Jordaan-Grady and another basket by Stern pulled the Eagles to within 13 points.

Milliman called a timeout to settle his team after Jordaan-Grady’s basket.

“I called the timeout and told them, ‘We’ve got to slow the tempo down. We’ve got to get back to what we were doing.’ And the kids responded, and you’ve got to give them credit. They did a nice job.”
Stern led the Eagles with 13 points and Jordaan-Grady added 12.

The win improved the Huskies’ record to 4-7 and pushed their MHAL record to 2-6 with nine games remaining. They’ll need to finish with at least a .500 record to qualify for the Section 9 Clasd B tournament.

“We’re confident going into the rest of the year, and we’re going into every game knowing that we’re going to win,” Berean said. “That’s our expectation, and our team is attacking every game like we’re going to win.”