Four days after defeating Brunswick for the Keytesville Tournament crown, the Lady Tigers took down the Lady Wildcats 38-33 in CLAA play Tuesday night at home.

Freshman scoring leader Ronnie Welch turned in a 12-point performance to lead Higbee to its 16th win of the season. She also picked up nine of the team’s 25 rebounds, six of which came on the offensive boards, and six steals.

Higbee coach Tanner Burton credits his team’s defense in securing the win after Brunswick cut the lead to just one point two times during the fourth quarter. “I was really happy with our defensive effort. The girls worked really hard to execute in the full-court and half-court (pressure). It is hard to full-court press for 32 minutes without making errors and overall I felt like we did a good job rotating.”

Higbee also committed 11 fewer tuners on Tuesday than it had during Saturday’s game. The Lady Tigers turned the ball over 26 times on Saturday, but only 15 times on Tuesday while forcing 25. “Junior Emma Johnson and Sophomore Isabelle Welch did a tremendous job defensively,” Burton said. “They rotated very well and did a nice job forcing them to make tough contested shots all night around the basket.”

Higbee jumped ahead early and never trailed in the game. The Lady Tigers pulled ahead 12-10 after eight minutes and led  23-18 by halftime. 

Higbee won a low-scoring third quarter 6-5 and thwarted a Brunswick comeback in the final frame to win by five.

Freshman Marilynn Ritter scored eight points for Higbee on two-for-five shooting from 3-point range. She also had four rebounds and three steals.

Sophomore Alie Mitchell finished with four points, four rebounds, five steals, and nine deflections.

Higbee had three players with at least five deflections on the night. “When we are being active in the passing lanes it creates more steals and turnovers and often times that leads to easy scoring,” said Burton.

With the conference win, Higbee improves to 6-2 in the CLAA and 16-3 overall. The Tigers are scheduled to host Bucklin-Macon County for their final home game on Friday. On Saturday, they take on Cairo, ranked No. 10 in Class 2, at the Mid Missouri Invitational hosted by Harrisburg. Tipoff is set for 10 a.m.