“Credit goes to Coach Meece: he had those boys ready for us tonight,” commented Hillcrest Head Coach Ryan Garvin. “They hung around with us in the first half as we struggled to get stops through a lot of the 2nd part of the first half. Aasness is such a great talent. He's just very smooth and fun to watch. He doesn't get many clean looks but he doesn't need a lot of room to get his shot off.”

Leaders for the Comets were Sam Brumfield (17 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists), Evan Olstad (16 points, 4 rebounds, 3 steals), Micah Foss (14 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, 8 steals), Zeke Ihrke (12 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists) and Noah Brumfield (12 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals).

“I thought Micah Foss came ready to play tonight,” added Garvin. “I love seeing him come out with energy and lead the team with his voice and his nose-to-the-ball posture. In terms of being aggressive and taking some chances and trusting his teammates to rotate, I think he did the things tonight that he has been asking his teammates to do since this summer. Eight steals and 6-10 deflections plus 7 or so rebounds and 4 assists - that's just a great stat line that has little to do with offense. Excited to see how his team rallies around his defense.”

“We knew Hillcrest was going to come with a lot of pressure on the ball in the full court and we did not handle it as well as we should have,” said Underwood Head Coach Evan Meece.  “We were out of position too many times on the defensive side, with careless fouls and giving up far too many offensive rebounds.  We need to regroup and prepare to dominate the boards and take care of the ball better.”

“Sam Brumfield does SO many nice things for us, too,” noted Coach Garvin. “He is such a threat with the ball in his hands that he just draws so much attention. He has developed better court vision this year and has begun delivering the ball really well to his teammates. Noah Brumfield has shown that he can be a consistent contributor as well. Only 14 minutes, but enough time for 12 points and 7 rebounds. Also great to have Evan Olstad get some nice looks on the offensive end tonight.”

Krosby Aasness led Underwood with 16 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists.  Evan Lundgren added 8 points.

The game started Underwood’s week of raising funds for Go 4 the Gold in the fight against Pediatric Cancer.  The players and coaches from both teams sported gold shoelaces to help raise money and awareness for pediatric cancer research.  Underwood will host Battle Lake on Friday night and both teams will again wear gold shoelaces.  For more information or to donate to the cause, you can visit http://donate.go4thegoal.org/ or go to the Underwood Boys’ Basketball Facebook page and follow the link to go4thegoal.

Hillcrest (4-4) will play at Rothsay on Friday night.