Heights girls moving on up

Tyler Fuchs is in his third season coaching Wisconsin Height’s girls basketball team. In his first two seasons, the Vanguards won four games a year. So when Heights captured a pair of games last week and bumped their win total to five, everyone in the program was naturally thrilled. Heights defeated Monroe, 44-40, on Jan. 2. The Vanguards then downed Cambria-Friesland, 43-38, on Jan. 3. Heights improved to 5-2 overall. “To have five wins on Jan. 3 is a great confidence boost for the girls,” Fuchs said. “Being able to start the new year with two wins in back to back days was huge for our program. Not only did our varsity team win both games, our JV team won both games as well.  Heights also hadn’t played since Dec. 13 — a 20-day gap between games over the holidays. But the Vanguards gave two impressive performances. “It’s a challenge to play on the first day back from winter break,” Fuchs said. “And we played away games that were both over an hour away on the first two days back from break.” Sonja Severson had 16 points and seven rebounds to lead Heights against Monroe, while R.J. Kalscheur added 15 points and six rebounds. Lydia Crowe had six assists and four steals, while Jocelyn Brabender added seven rebounds. “I wanted to apply full court pressure to get our girls engaged early in the game and hopefully get some easy fast break buckets,” Fuchs said. “Monroe did a good job of taking care of the ball which thwarted my plan. We made a couple adjustments at halftime which led to some more success in the second half and we were able to walk away with a hard fought victory.” Things weren’t as easy against Cambria-Friesland, as Heights trailed by double digits in the second half. But the Vanguards rallied back and notched one of their most impressive wins of the year. “We started the game very sloppy, slow, and with low energy … and Cambria-Friesland took advantage of that,” Fuchs said. “Our girls fought hard the entire second half and once we started applying defensive pressure, we were able to create turnovers which led to transition points. We went on a huge run and once we got the lead, we were able to hold on to it until the end.” • On deck: Heights was at Madison West Tuesday, then hosts Belleville Thursday at 7:30 p.m. The Vanguards then host Juda Jan. 13 at 7:30 p.m. and host Cambridge Jan. 14 at 7:30 p.m.