The Comets shot 49% (31-63) from the field and buried 55.6% (10-18) of their three’s.  Six different players connected from beyond the arc with four players hitting two bombs.  Thomas Zwiers had a monster game for HLA with 16 points and 18 rebounds.  Sam Brumfield led the Comets with a 19 point performance and Evan Gould added a dozen.  Two players, Yuchan Ha and Micah Foss finished with 10 points apiece.  Brumfield led the team with 4 assists and also added 4 rebounds.  Gould, Zwiers, Joel Quam and Foss all had 3 assists in the game.

“We came out flat defensively,” commented Hillcrest Head Coach Ryan Garvin. “We only had one short stretch in the first half where we felt good about our defensive work - undisciplined close outs, bad footwork, which turned into a lot of bad fouls that really slowed the game down and put us in early foul trouble. The second half we came out with some of the same intensity with which we played against Norman County East and actually stretched our 41-33 halftime lead to 58-36 at one point. However, we couldn't hold that lead and Wheaton pulled to within 5 at one point. They finished with a flourish, but thankfully we hit a few free throws down the stretch to secure the victory.

The Warriors hit just 26% (7-27) of their three-point attempts and shot under 48% from the floor.  Matt Thielen led the way with 33 points, 9 rebounds and 3 steals.  Nick Lupkes was also in double digits with ten points, while adding 7 rebounds and 4 assists.  Dylan Bainbridge had 10 points, 3 boards, 4 assists and 2 steals.

Hillcrest (1-3) will play at Brandon-Evansville on Tuesday and at Underwood on Thursday.  The game in Wheaton started a stretch of 7 straight road games for the Comets.

Wheaton/Herman-Norcross (5-4) has now lost three straight games.   They will play at Clinton-Graceville-Beardsley on Thursday and will host West Central Area on Friday.