By: Sean Moylan
After losses to Nottingham and West Windsor-Plainsboro North in its first two games, the Hightstown High girls’ varsity basketball team finds itself focusing on one main mission: getting its talented big girls the ball.
While Tara Miluszewski netted a team-high 13 points in last Friday’s opening night 54-43 loss to the Nottingham Northstars at Hightstown, the Rams’ talented junior center could have had even more points.
"Tara (Miluszewski) is playing well. It’s just hard getting her the ball," noted Hightstown head coach Scott Kercher.
Hightstown was hurt by the Northstars’ guard-play. In fact, Nottingham’s BriAnna Lucas netted 30 points, most of which came off of Hightstown turnovers.
Yet, after a slow start, Hightstown picked up its game and outscored Nottingham 19-15 in the fourth quarter.
"In the fourth quarter we played a full-court, man press to cut the lead down to six at one point," said Kercher, whose team made some nice steals in the closing quarter.
Brittany Nelson, a junior center-forward, scored a dozen points for the Rams in the contest. Autrice Michael (9 points), Cara Montferrat (6 points) and Stephanie Vazquez (3 points) were Hightstown’s other scorers.
Then an extremely talented West Windsor-Plainsboro North squad topped Hightstown, 66-41, at Hightstown this past Tuesday.
"They play very physical and they have very quick guards, and they have four of them," said Kercher, whose team fell behind early, but once again, played much better in the second half.
Hightstown was hurt by the Knights’ three-point shooting. In fact, Megan Pisani canned five treys on her way to scoring a game-high 21 points. Monserrat, however, played well and scored 11 points for Hightstown, which also got solid efforts out of Miluszewski (8 points), Jessica Lukacs (7 points), Michael (4 points) and Nelson (3 points). Vazquez, Amelia Snow, Laura Sokol and Rebecca Abelson each sank a field goal for the Rams too.
In recent practices, Hightstown has been working hard on moving the ball and working it down low to its big girls.
"We’ve had a rough start and the girls are frustrated because they know they can play better," said Kercher, who knows his kids can get the job done.
Hightstown (0-2) is scheduled at Steinert tonight (Friday). Hightstown is scheduled to play in a Holiday Tournament at Burlington Township next Wednesday and Thursday.

