“It was about as physical of a basketball game as we’ve been in this year, and that’s a big credit to how hard the Hillcrest girls came out of the gate,” commented Brandon-Evansville Head Coach Zach Traphagen. “To our credit, we were able to calm ourselves down in the second half and start playing more of our brand of basketball. Defensively we were able to hold Foss, who is a dynamic scorer, to zero made field goals. She did some damage at the line, but I’m proud of the way the girls battled thru some adversity tonight. Big showdown in Parkers Prairie on Thursday night for us, so we’ll get back to work tomorrow and Wednesday to put our best foot forward.”

The Chargers received a game high 20 points from Bailey Schaefer, while Mikenna Pattrin scored 14.  Pattrin also pulled down 6 rebounds and dished out 3 assists.  Brittany Korkowski chipped in with 6 points and 7 rebounds.  Kristen Kokett had 6 steals to go along with 5 boards.

Leaders for Hillcrest were Mackenzie Foss (12 points, 8 rebounds, 8 steals) and Madi Foss (12 points, 4 rebounds, 3 steals).  Cassy Twedt added 5 boards for HLA.

“The girls played really scrappy defense and forced quite a few turnovers in the first half,” noted Hillcrest Head Coach Hannah Clark. “Our guards did a nice job of harassing their perimeter plays and did a good job disrupting their offense. I thought Molly McGuire played some really good post defense for us tonight. She battled on the inside with a girl who had at least 4 inches on her. On the other side of it, we also had quite a few turnovers that the Chargers were able to capitalize on and get some easy points. We struggled to get into any rhythm on offense. When we were able to move the ball around we got some good looks, but just couldn’t knock down our shots.”

Hillcrest will play at Battle Lake in a Little Eight Conference contest on Thursday night.