The Highland Men's basketball team set yet another record for the program by winning a first round game of the NJCAA Division II National Tournament with a big 88-66 victory over Richard Bland College on Tuesday night.
 
After watching two upsets earlier in the day, Highland wanted in on the action and loved the 'underdog' role they were given. Highland came in as the 10 seed while Richard Bland was the No. 7 seed and a final four team from last year's tournament. Richard Bland returned eight sophomores from that team that had tournament experience, while Highland was playing in their first NJCAA Tournament game since 2011.
 
The Scotties came out shooting lights out making their first four shots of the game, all three pointers to take a quick 12-3 lead over the Statesmen. Ryan Haskins dropped two and Taiveyhon Mason added in two threes as well just three minutes into the game.
 
Highland kept the foot on the gas pedal and baskets from Mason and Alonzo Williams gave Highland an 18-3 lead with 15:59 to go in the first half.
 
The Scotties stretched the lead to 19 points before Richard Bland settled in and started creating some offense. The Statesmen put together a 15-4 run to cut the Highland lead to just eight with 3:37 to play in the half.
 
Ryan Haskins drilled a deep three right in front of the Statesmen bench at the buzzer to give the Scotties a 47-27 lead at the half.
 
Highland came out of the break just as they did to start the game and went on a 7-1 run to start the half.
 
Holden Redparth came alive in the second half scoring 15 of his game high 25 points in the second. He finished with three three-pointers, one of which he turned into a four-point play.
 
Richard Blands' chance of a comeback became out of reach as Highland extended their lead to 28 under five minutes to play. The Scotties cruised in the final five minutes and finished the game with a powerful two-handed slam by Alonzo Williams to cap off the first-round victory, 88-66 over the No. 7 seed Statesmen.
 
"We shot the ball well at times and we guarded hard at times and took them out of what they wanted to do. They are second in the nation in offensive rebounding. They finished with 15 but they only had four at halftime and I think six of those came late in the game, so we did a good job of taking that away from them," commented Head Coach Jerre Cole.