Heights girls roll by Riverdale

Bill Sullivan wanted intensity, concentration, passion. His Wisconsin Heights girls basketball team listened. The Vanguards rallied from a 5-point second half deficit and toppled host Riverdale, 55-48, last Tuesday. Heights improved to 3-2 overall. “We had another roller coaster type game with good spurts of offense and defense and then we had our lulls, that allowed Riverdale to get back in the game and take the lead,” Sullivan said. “It was nice to see the girls play with a little more passion in the second half on defense that created points for us on the offensive end of it.” Kelsie Handel led the Vanguards with 16 points, while Natalie Hering and Ashley Adler each scored 11 points. Hannah King added eight points off the bench. Heights raced to a 13-2 lead early in the first half. Riverdale fought back, though, and pulled within 29-25 by halftime. Riverdale took advantage of several Vanguards’ mistakes to begin the second half and stormed to a 31-30 lead. Eventually, Riverdale’s lead jumped to 40-35. “We struggled taking care of the ball at the beginning of the second half,” Sullivan said. “We started taking care of the ball middle of the second half and got some turnovers with our pressure, which we converted,” The Vanguards certainly did, answering with a 13-1 run to take a 48-41 lead. Heights shot 40% for the evening and created 29 turnovers, including 15 steals. “We did a nice job of coming back after a lackluster stretch midway through the first half that carried into the second half,” Sullivan said. • On deck: Heights traveled to Platteville — the No. 1 team in Division 3 — on Monday. The Vanguards then host Lodi at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday and travel to Poynette at 5:30 p.m. Saturday. “We have a stretch of three tough games prior to the break and will need to improve our overall intensity throughout the games to be competitive,” Sullivan said.