Highland Home routs Goshen, cold shooting night dooms Eagles

Less than 24 hours after picking up a win over Opp, in what head coach Johnny Mitchell called “by far the best game we played,” the Goshen turned in one of their worst.

Highland Home rolled to a 56-35 win over the Eagles.

The game was tied at 17 after the first quarter, but the Flying Squadron went on a big second and third quarter run to put Goshen in the rear view for good.

Highland Home outscored Goshen 35-10 in the middle quarters and the Squadron cruised to the big non-region win.

Goshen head coach Johnny Mitchell said his team lost all three of the game’s important phases.

“We always tell them that the game is broken down in to three parts,” Mitchell said. “You have to defend, rebound and take care of the ball, and to win the game, you have to win at least two of those facets. I don’t know if we had any of them tonight. We just have to keep playing and keep working.”

The disappointing loss came on the heels of a big Eagle win over the Opp Bobcats. Goshen also beat Highland Home in their tournament earlier in the season.

Mitchell feels his team did not improve Friday night.

“I think we took a step forward last night (against Opp), but tonight we did not” Mitchell said. “We might have even taken a step backwards. But we treat adversity the same as success. We will come back on Saturday and get ready to go back to work.”

Goshen scored 17 points in the first quarter, but managed only 18 more in the rest of the game.

Denzil Green and Quay Simmons each had seven points to lead the Eagles.

Girls: Highland Home, 55, Goshen 47

The Goshen Lady Eagles fought hard against the more skilled Flying Squadron, but couldn’t complete the late rally.

The Lady Eagles closed the game on a 7-0 run, but just ran out of time.

Mitchell said his team has improved each and every day.

“If there is a team in the state that has improved more from week one to now, I want to see them,” Mitchell said. “These girls come to practice every day ready to work. Not all of them get to play, but they are all excited to be out here, and to work and be a teammate. We are laying the groundwork for a good basketball program.”