After winning the opening round matchup the lady Scotties of Highland moved to the NJCAA Division II National tournament quarterfinals and faced off with the host school the #3 seeded Illinois Central College.

It was a highly contested matchup back and forth going down to the wire with the Cougars of Illinois Central coming out on top 59-55 over Highland. The Scotties and Cougars traded blows back and forth in a defensive struggle throughout the game with each team holding leads for periods of time. After a battle in the first half it was a stalemate at the half, tied 24-24. Highland came out early in the second half to take the early second half lead but Illinois Central fought back to lead down the stretch and stop Highland from hitting late buckets to hold on for the win.

Scotties shot 53% form the floor on the night (19-36) but it wasn't enough to battle back from 21 turnovers in the matchup and being out rebounded by five by the Cougars.

Highland was lead by Carina Jackson who tallied 14 points and Royce Shields chipped in 13 points, also. TaMiya Green posted nine points and grabbed six rebounds on the night for the Scotties, while Ashley Torres added eight points and seven rebounds, too.

For Illinois Central they were lead by a duo in double figures with ShaVonn Wilkens who had a game-high 20 points.

With the loss Highland falls to 28-6 on the season and looks to continue their season as part of the consolation games in the NJCAA Division II National tournament, as its a double elimination tournament. Scotties will play the #10 seed Rhode Island after they fell to the #2 seed Louisburg in their quarterfinal matchup, game is scheduled for 3:00pm today (Thursday March 21st). The games will be streamed online via IHigh.com (click here for a link) and for more information on the tournament and a bracket visit the host school website Illinois Central College (click here).