Wednesday night saw Conference play commence in the KJCCC and Highland welcomed rival Johnson County to town for a battle. The Highland men were looking to open Conference play in a strong fashion but it was #5 Johnson County that used a late run to secure victory 66-58.

Both teams got out of the gates slow but the Scotties established the early lead going up 10-5 forcing a Cavalier timeout just a little over five minutes into the contest. Scotties maintained the lead until the 3:06 mark of the first half when Johnson County tied the game at 19-19 after a little two and half minutes of scoreless basketball from both teams. Johnson County snagged the lead late in the first half and carried the 27-25 advantage into halftime.

The second half was back and forth early with each team holding a lead until the Scotties ignited a run with an alley-oop dunk as Dylan Vincent found Rashon Johnson and the Scotties worked their lead to eight at 46-38 with 12:35 remaining in the contest. That lead was chipped away at by Johnson County and little before the eight minute mark was back in favor of the Cavaliers. The Scotties were unable to recover falling behind by double figures as the game progressed and went scoreless for a four minute stretch ultimately running out of time for a comeback falling 66-58.

Scotties shot 42.6% from the field in the game but Johnson County was right their also at 41.4% from the floor, while the Cavaliers won the rebounding battle 38-28.

Marquise Milton paced Highland in the loss with 24 points going 7-10 from the field and 8-8 from the free throw line, while Johnson tallied 11 points and grabbed six rebounds. Vincent had six points and five assists and Aguek Deng finished with five points, nine rebounds and four blocks.

The loss moves Highland to 13-6 on the season and 0-1 in KJCCC action and snaps a 26-game home win streak for the Scotties. Highland keeps the season rolling on Saturday, January 25^th when they travel to Labette for a road KJCCC showdown.