Eight minutes.

That’s the amount of time it took for the Highlanders girls basketball team to achieve a 52-42 victory over Milwaukee Vincent last night after 24 minutes of shooting, scoring and fouling on both sides without a clear winner.

For the early periods of the game, Homestead led Vincent in points scored, but the atmosphere in the fieldhouse intensified during the third quarter when their opponent began gaining on them. Milwaukee brought the game down to a one-point difference with three minutes to play. With two minutes on the clock, they pulled ahead. Homestead freshman Chloe Marotta answered back less than a minute later with two points scored of her own and scored another two-point shot from the far right of the court, but by the end of the third quarter the game was tied.

“It was hard that it came that close,” Marotta said. “It shouldn’t have been.”

However, the Highlanders found their chance to shine during the fourth quarter of the game. Multiple players, including Marotta and  juniors Taylor McIlwraith, Crystal Hearn and Allison Fochs contributed to score points for the Highlanders. During the last 30 seconds of the game Homestead led by eight points (making the game total 50-42 at the time), and Marotta then scored twice to bring the game’s to its final score: 52-42.

“This game really tested our toughness,” Coach Corey Wolf said. “Vincent was physical and aggressive, and they were a great team to play because we don’t play many teams like that. They made us play a different style…we had to be offensively smart.”

That offense certainly played a role in yesterday’s win. Multiple Homestead players scored in the double digits that night: Marotta scored 25 points, McIlwraith scored 11, and fellow junior Christal Hearn scored ten.

“We play together and win together,” Marotta said of her accomplishments that night. “We work together, and I’m grateful that my team could help me have a game like that.”

Marotta said her team’s strong points that evening were working the ball around and staying calm under pressure.

“We stayed together as a team,” she said, thus adding to past statements that the team’s closeness and bond has helped them win games.

Looking forward, the highlanders hope to stay together as a team for the next few weeks and to keep winning their games. There are two games left in the regular season for the girls against Milwaukee Lutheran and Germantown, and then they will move into the playoffs on Feb. 19.

“We’re striving toward state and the playoffs,” Marotta said. “We’re looking forward to that.”

Coach Wolf says her girls will continue to work on understanding the game, being intense on their defense (which was something Marotta also mentioned,) and playing their roles on the team. But overall, playoffs aren’t weighing heavily on her mind at the moment.

“We’re not thinking about playoffs just yet,” she said. “We can’t waste these next two weeks…we’re going to play a good team [in playoffs] right off the bat.”