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Strong Second Half Leads Knights Past Comets

By Craig Olson, 01/20/20, 11:45PM CST

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The West Central Area Knights improved to 12-2 on the year with a 73-50 win over the Hillcrest Comets on Monday night in Barrett.  The Knights hit 27-52 shots for 52% including 9-24 threes for 38%.  Hillcrest made 19-52 from the field for 37% and hit 6-21 threes.  The Knights held a 37-26 advantage on the boards. The Knights hit 10-16 free throws and the Comets 6-7.

Knight Coach Kraig Hunter said, "We played last Thursday and haven't practiced since due to the blizzard.  This caused us to get off to a slow start due to sloppy footwork on the defensive end and some careless turnovers on the offensive end.  We played much better as the game went on.  We controlled dribblers better and made some sharp backdoor passes as well as a dominant rebounding effort."

The Knights once again had a balanced scoring effort with four players in double figures. Gage Staples (16 points, 8 rebounds, and 4 assists), Grant Beuckens (16 points, 4 rebounds and 2 steals), Jack VanKempen (15 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 steals), and Tate Christenson (10 points, 2 rebounds, and 3 assists) were all in double figures.

Jacob Bright and Brady Reeve both contributed with well-rounded games. Bright had 6 points, 4 assists, 2 rebounds, and 2 steals and Reeve had 5 points, 6 rebounds, and 2 assists.  Rounding out the scoring were Jacob Strunk with 3 points and Xander Bontjes with 2 points. Blake Koloski and Ryder Staples both provided good minutes off the bench. Koloski had 3 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 steals and Staples had 2 rebounds and 2 assists and provided some good defense on the Comet shooters.

Scoring for Hillcrest was Sam Brumfield with 11, Ev Gould 8, Joel Quam 8, Micah Foss 7, Thomas Zwiers 5, Yuchan Ha 4, Caden Fischer 4, and Zeke Irhke 3.

The Knights host CGB on Friday night.  "After the long weekend layoff, it is very important for us to have a good week of crisp practice," said Hunter.