HIGHTSTOWN — The way the Colonial Valley Conference Colonial Division girls’ basketball opener between Princeton and Hightstown was going Tuesday, it was clear that whoever came out on top was going to have an advantage – at least emotionally – as the season progressed. If nothing else, it will make for interesting rematches should the teams meet up again in the CVC Tournament or the NJSIAA Central Jersey Group IV Tournament. As the game went, despite both teams being in some foul trouble, the Tigers jumped to a 16-point lead, which they still held with 2:30 left in the third quarter. Then the Rams went on a 19-2 run, including 14 unanswered points, to take the lead. Hightstown still held a one-point lead with two minutes left when three of its tallest girls fouled out in a 1:32 span. Yet, through it all, the lead did not change as Princeton missed five consecutive foul shots and Hightstown missed a pair. With 10.5 seconds left, Tigers 5-foot-10 senior center Luna Bar-Cohen hit the second of her two free throws to tie the game at 44 and force overtime. From there, the visitors, with 5-8 junior forward Anna Winters still on the floor despite picking up her fourth foul with 5:11 left in the third quarter, had more firepower for the four extra minutes and came away with a 55-49 victory. “They made us lose our focus in the second half,” Princeton 5-9 junior forward Katie Sharkey said. “We struggled to do things we had been doing the rest of the game. But as soon as Luna hit that foul shot to tie the score, we knew we were going to win.” Sharkey, especially at the start and finish, had a lot to do with that outcome. She led head coach Joe Smiegocki’s team with 17 points. Nearly half of those came in the first quarter as the visitors built a 19-8 lead. She also had two baskets in overtime. Her production combined with Winters, who had 11 points with seven of those coming in the fourth quarter and OT, proved to be too much for the Rams, despite a game-high 29 points from Hightstown 5-10 freshman guard Hayley DeKok. “I was happy that we came back and proud that we played together at the end,” Rams head coach Jenna Marcus said. What she was not thrilled about was the way foul trouble had destroyed that tremendous comeback (from 16 points down to three up) in the final two minutes of regulation. First to go was 5-11 senior guard/forward Caitlyn Nagle with 1:54 left in the fourth quarter. That was important because Nagle had 14 points, eight since returning to the floor with two minutes left in the third quarter, along with half of her 10 rebounds. Nagle and Winters had picked up their third fouls in the second quarter, but Nagle was tagged with her fourth 25.3 seconds before halftime. A minute later, 5-10 senior forward Yusra Moore fouled out, then 6-4 senior forward Penelope Swarn followed her teammates to the bench with 22.1 ticks remaining in regulation. “That was our goal going in,” Sharkey said. “We knew we’d have trouble shooting over their tallest girls, so we wanted to try to get them to foul us.” Bar-Cohen (six points, 12 rebounds) opened overtime with a basket off a pass from Winters 10 seconds in. A minute and a half later, Winters converted a three-point play. Tigers five-foot junior guard Leah Bornstein (eight points) followed with a bucket of her own, then a pass to Sharkey for a score, which stretched their lead to 53-44 with 1:25 left in OT. DeKok hit a 3-point field goal (her third of the game) and Grace Weissenberger scored on a drive for Hightstown’s only baskets of the extra session around one more jump shot by Sharkey. “This was a great way to start the season,” Sharkey said. “It shows how hard we’ve worked already, even though we still have some things to work on.” PRINCETON (55) Bar-Cohen 1-4-6, Grippo 0-0-0, Winters 4-3-11, Sharkey 8-0-17, Romain 3-3-9, Gallagher 1-0-2, Bornstein 3-1-8, Reynolds 0-0-0, Hunt 1-0-2. Totals — 21-11-55. HIGHTSTOWN (49) Nagle 5-2-14, Swarn 1-2-4, Weissenberger 1-0-2, ORoberts 0-0-0, YMoore 0-0-0, Wersching 0-0-0, Mascoll 0-0-0, Gulli 0-0-0, DeKok 13-0-29. Totals — 20-4-49. Princeton (1-0)                     19    9      9      7    11    —    55 Hightstown (1-1)                     8    8    10    18      5    —    49 3-point goals — Sharkey, Bornstein (P), Nagle 2, DeKok 3 (H).