The Highland Lady Cougars and Malcolm X Lady Hawks faced off in the Region IV semi-finals on Saturday for the third time this season. Malcolm X had won the pair of hard fought battles - in Chicago by 2 and at Freeport by 1. Both teams knew it would be an intense matchup and that the berth to the Region IV Championship would have to be earned.

After trailing by as much as 15 in the last minute of the third quarter, the Lady Cougars used a trapping pressure defense to speed up the tempo and mount a frenzied comeback. They scored 28 points in the 4th quarter, including a pair of clutch made free throws by Marija Markovic that put the Cougars ahead 79-77 with under a second left.

Malcolm X  jumped out to an early lead to start the game and were able to steadily build on it throughout the first half. The Lady Hawks were able to get the ball inside at will, constantly feeding Dejae Parks, who had 21 first half points to lead them to a 43-32 halftime lead.

The Lady Hawks' attack of Parks, Enija Brown-Griffin, Temya Russell allowed them to extend the lead further in the 3rd quarter. Eventually, the pressure defense and high tempo of the Lady Cougars proved to be too much.  The Cougar offense shared the ball well, with a team total of 20 assists setting up key baskets by Laura Ortega Mora (17 pts 10 rebs), Maddie Hildebrand (19 pts, 15 rebs), and Markovic (21 pts, 9 rebs).

The Cougars pulled closer and closer until taking the lead 73-71 with under three minutes to go. The two teams traded points until the score was tied at 77 with 30 seconds left. The offense ran down to the final seconds, leading to offensive rebound by Markovic, who was fouled on the putback with .8 seconds to go.

Highland forced a total of 33 turnovers and stayed on the attack offensively despite a below-average shooting night (34.5%).

The Lady Cougars have now won 6 of 7 and look forward to hosting the Region IV Championship in Freeport on Monday at 5pm. There they will face Triton College,  another team they are very familiar with.  This will be the 3rd consecutive season that these two teams have met in the Region IV Championship. The Trojans won 62-58 in 2021, with the Cougars getting their revenge in 2022 with a 86-58 victory.