Dixie Heights and Highlands opened the season facing similar challenges.
Even before the first game, both teams knew they would be without key contributors. The Colonels entered the night without senior Coralee Pelfrey and the Bluebirds were missing sophomore Maren Orme. Despite those setbacks, Highlands put together a 63-53 road win over Dixie in Edgewood on Monday night, the opening night of the KHSAA basketball season.
Orme, ranked No. 5 in the Northern Kentucky Girls Basketball Coaches Association preseason poll, was injured in a preseason scrimmage and is out for the season. She was coming off an impressive freshman year in which she averaged 10.8 points, the second most on the team.
“We were sad for her, disappointed, because we know what kind of impact she makes on this team and all of the great things she does for us,” Highlands head coach Jaime Richey said.
For Dixie, Pelfrey has been sidelined since suffering an injury in June and will also miss the entire season. She averaged 11.5 points last season, which was the second most on the team, and she led the Colonels in rebounding at 7.2 per game.
Pelfrey’s injury was only the beginning for the Colonels in the preseason.
“This may have been the first time, except for one day last week, that we had our 11 varsity players because of illness and injury,” Dixie Heights head coach Joel Steczynski said. “Peyton Gibson was out for three and a half weeks with a knee injury, Asia Carner had a mild concussion for a week, and we played our first scrimmage without her.”
Carner led the Colonels with 17 points and Gibson finished with 10. Aubrey Elkins was the third double digit scorer with 11 points.
“I think we expected to go a bit deeper,” Steczynski said.
Depth worked in the Bluebirds’ favor.
Highlands went nine deep, using a mix of three seniors and several underclassmen, including a sophomore and freshman starter along with two eighth graders off the bench.
The top two scorers were senior Kaylee Mills with 17 points, including 13 in the first quarter, and eighth grader Solu Nzekwu with 14. Junior Maddy Lickert added 10 points off the bench.
“For a lot of them, this was their first ever varsity game, so helping them and coaching them to where they need to be will ultimately help them in the long run,” Mills said.
Richey said she has been asking Mills to shoot more throughout her five years in the program.
“I think a lot is my teammates. They looked to find me the ball,” Mills said. “I would not say it was me. It was my teammates.”
Along with her scoring, Mills finished with three assists, four steals and six rebounds.
After Mills scored 13 of Highlands’ 21 first quarter points, Dixie battled back to take a 24-23 lead before the Bluebirds closed the half on an 8-0 run.
“It’s conditioning, with this being our first live game,” Steczynski said. “We lost our leading rebounder and another rebounder from last year’s team, so we just have to find people to step up and embrace how hard we have to play. I am proud of our effort out of the gate.”
Highlands extended the lead to as much as 18 in the third quarter. Dixie cut the deficit to single digits, but the Bluebirds closed it out at the free throw line. Aside from a three by Mills, the rest of their 13 fourth quarter points came from the stripe.
Dixie Heights (0-1) will play its first road game of the season on Wednesday in Dry Ridge against Grant County at 7:30 p.m.
Highlands (1-0) will also face an 8th Region opponent next when the Bluebirds travel to Walton-Verona on Friday at 7:30 p.m.
More photos below, provided by Charles Bolton:
BLUEBIRDS 63, COLONELS 53
HIGHLANDS — 21-10-19-13 — 63
DIXIE HEIGHTS — 17-7-11-18 — 53
Scoring
Highlands (63) — Mills 17, Nzekwu 14, M. Lickert 10, Bucher 7, Barber 5, Richey 4, Neufarth 3, Barlow 2, Kinney 1
Dixie Heights (53) —Carner 17, Elkins 11, Gibson 10, Allen 9, Ragan 6
Game Stats
3-Pointers: Highlands 7, Dixie Heights 7
Free Throws: Highlands 10/16, Dixie Heights 8/9
Fouls: Highlands 14, Dixie Heights 16
Records: Highlands 1-0, Dixie Heights 0-1