Southern Lab brought a large fan section, along with their cheerleaders

The Highland Baptist Lady Bears were knocked out of the playoffs on Saturday following a physically dominating performance by No. 5 seed Southern Lab.

M’Kiyiah Olivier led the socring for Highland with 19 points and 90 percent free throw accuracy. Bri Sensley added 16 points.

The Lady Bears dominated the game early with 3-pointers from Yvette Olivier and Sensley, giving Highland a 1-point lead after the first quarter. Southern Lab answered with a physical second quarter, holding the Lady Bears to just 4 points and leaving Highland trailing by 10 going into the half.

The Lady Bears struggled to keep themselves in the game, getting pushed and fouled up and down the court. HBCS scored 10 points in the third quarter and 14 in the fourth, but the Lady Bears were unable to stop the larger and much more aggressive Southern Lab players from scoring 34 second half points.

Highland head coach Carol Sensley said that the difference between the two teams came down to Southern Lab’s physicality.

“Start to finish, I thought that they were more physical and they allowed us to play physically and that was the difference in the ball game,” Sensley explained.

“Lunging on the ball handlers, shoving off of the screens, leaning on you. They (the referees) are allowing that to take place and we didn’t really do a good job of adjusting to the physical part of it. I didn’t expect it to be that physical, honestly, but it was and our team just didn’t adjust to it.”

Despite falling short of their plans to make a return to the Marsh Madness tournament, Sensley said she is proud of her team and what they accomplished this season.

“It’s been a great year,” she said. “This loss doesn’t define our team. I’m very proud of this basketball team and what we accomplished, losing what we lost last year and not knowing what we were going to have at the beginning.

“It’s been a really good year and I’m just proud of this team, proud of the school, and the support.”

Following the loss, many Highland players wanted nothing more than to return to the locker room and deal with their emotions in private. Coach Sensley had other plans, and brought her team out to show them just how much love and support they had from their classmates, family, and friends.

“I did not want them to think that they should hang their heads,” the coach said. “We’ve laid it on the line all year, we finished with a twenty-plus win season, and made it this far when a lot of other teams didn’t make it.

“I wanted them to show appreciation for all of the support that was here. We had a great crowd, the student body came out, all of the support from the community.”