YOUR AD HERE »

Highlander girls way too much for Lakers

Incline freshman Brooke Gutheil works down low.
Bill Rozak / Tahoe Daily Tribune

INCLINE VILLAGE, Nev. — There wasn’t much drama earlier this week between the Incline and North Tahoe girls’ basketball teams.

The Highlanders are a 2A powerhouse seeking three distinct championships this season — Northern League, Northern Region and State.

The Lakers have a new coach who is doing his best to bring the program up to respectability.



The clash Tuesday night in Incline resulted in a Highlanders 64-18 victory.

Incline head coach Indra Winquest wanted to get his 3-point shooting stars back in a rhythm and have his low-post girls dominate the paint.



The Highlanders grinded their way to a big lead in the first half and looked like a well-oiled machine in the second.

Taylor Redfern scored 15 points, including three 3-pointers, and Elisabeth Stranzl added 14 points, that included her first two 3-point bombs of 2019, got back on track.

Down low, Serena Faulkner scored seven points and seemed to grab every rebound available and finished with 15 and Brooke Gutheil added 12 points and five boards.

“In the second half we played a lot better,” Winquest said. “We were really slow in the first half. I’m really trying to get the girls to be more determined, more aggressive and more confident offensively.”

He said that wasn’t the case Friday against White Pine, where Incline (12-2, 6-1 Northern) suffered its first league loss of the season, or the next day at West Wendover, even though they dominated.

Redfern broke out of a mini two-game shooting slump where she hit just 2 of 16 from beyond the arc. And Stranzl hadn’t hit one in four games dating back to mid-December after hitting 22 in her first nine varsity games. The two 3s Stranzl hit, looked perfect when they left her hand

“Tay and Lis have really been struggling with their shots,” Winquest said.

By the end of the third quarter (54-14), the shooting strokes were back.

Redfern also added six assists, six steals and four rebounds while Stranzl had seven steals and five assists.

Also for the Highlanders, Madison Corneil scored nine points, Kate Tong had five and Carolyn Eppolito had two.

Alicia Lee led the Lakers (2-12, 1-5 Northern) with six points, Anaka Hudson had four and Cindy Leon, Merrill Green, Meka Parra and Alejandra Rodriguez each had a bucket.

Incline next will host Pershing County (9-9, 3-3 Northern) at 6 p.m. Friday.

North Tahoe next will play at Pershing at 2 p.m. the next day.

“That team has gotten better and their new coach is working hard to build their program,” Winquest said. “We talked about not playing down to their speed, about playing our game, one speed only aggressive with confidence. Every second, they need to play their butts off. But overall, I’m pleased with the performance. Serena was awesome, great underneath basket and Brooke was fantastic down low.”


Support Local Journalism

Support Local Journalism

Readers around the Lake Tahoe Basin and beyond make the Tahoe Tribune's work possible. Your financial contribution supports our efforts to deliver quality, locally relevant journalism.

Now more than ever, your support is critical to help us keep our community informed about the evolving coronavirus pandemic and the impact it is having locally. Every contribution, however large or small, will make a difference.

Your donation will help us continue to cover COVID-19 and our other vital local news.