You would have to go back a few years to find the last time that the Bishop Carroll Golden Eagles came away with a win against the Heights Falcons. But on Friday night, as Heights played its first game in the school's new gym, Coach Lonnie Lolar's team finally came out victorious.
Neither team shot well to open, especially the Falcons who were 0-5 from three-point range in the first few minutes. Carroll didn't shoot much better but they were getting good looks in the paint from Logan Bullinger and took a 10-5 lead after the first quarter.
In the second quarter the Golden Eagles were up 16-12 and worked it down low to Bullinger again who got the bucket and the foul. Lolar's team would go up by 10 when Connor Evans pulled down an offensive rebound and kicked it out to Christian Smith for the three. At that point Carroll led 22-12 and would go up 26-15 at halftime.
Heights started to make a run at the start of the second half as Chris Reed found his stride. Reed started hitting his outside shots and he made some great passes too. Reed's skip pass to Semaj Hervey for a three-pointer cut the Eagles' lead and then Ealy Bell's slam dunk to end the third quarter down 35-28.
The Falcons would get back within four points late in the fourth quarter but Carroll's offense did just enough to stay in the game and win it 53-45.
"We haven't won a game against Heights since the pre-Perry era. The ball bounced our way, a lot of good things by both teams and a lot of first game mistakes. But I liked the way our guys finished at the end," said Lolar.
Bishop Carroll had to be happy with the way their girls team performed against the two-time defending state champion Falcons ladies team.
The Eagles with a huge change this year as Taylor Steven took over for Don Racine as head coach. She definitely had a huge challenge against Kip Pulliam's experienced group.
Katie Palmer was on fire early for Heights scoring 19 in the first quarter alone. She would cool down in the second half but still finished with 26 points for Heights.
Palmer was dishing out the assists too, seeing Makayla Harding on the outside for the triple to push Heights out to a 15-point lead in the third quarter.
However, the Eagles have some solid shooters on their team. Senior Hannah Schauf hit a three-pointer to cut the Falcons' lead to 9 in the fourth quarter. And then with just under six minutes to play Jordyn Miller hit a long jumper to cut the Heights lead to just 6 points.
That would be as close as Carroll would get, however, as Heights' experience helped close out the game. Great defense led to easy offense for Pulliam's girls down the stretch and they ended up with a 65-55 win.
