“This was an intense battle most of the way,” reported Hillcrest Head Coach Ryan Garvin.  “Looking at the shot chart from the first half is so interesting.  We took 36 shots and half of them were 3’s!  Lots of the shots we took, especially in the first half, are makeable shots for our boys, but our shot selection really is a large part of the problem.  We haven’t figured out when to take our shots in the rhythm of the offense at this points.  It’s early and we’ll continue to have that conversation as the season goes along.  I thought our shot selection in the second half was a huge plus for us.  We were a lot more patient and made Hancock play defense in the half court a bit more.  An unofficial 14 assists in the second half tells that story well.”

Luke Christensen finished with 15 points and 9 boards, Noah Brumfield had 20 points and Erik Bjorndahl hit some big shots in the second half on the way to an 11 point performance.  Sam Berge finished with7, and Gabe Swedenburg, Preston Berge and Matthew Knutson all contributed 4 to round out the scoring.  Preston Berge also added 5 rebounds.

“This was Hancock’s first game,” noted Coach Garvin.  “They are just figuring out who they are after losing some huge pieces from last year.  Coach Cory Bedel does such a great job with that program.  We have no doubt that they’ll look and feel a lot different when we go visit their place in January.”

Hudson VerSteeg led the Owls with 19 points and completed a double-double by snaring 10 rebounds.  Brayden Kisgen added 11 points and team high 5 steals, while Chase Evink and Jackson Koehl scored 9 points each and had 6 boards apiece.  Koehl also had 5 assists and Rylan Mjerding led the Owls with 6 helpers.

Hillcrest (3-0) will play at West Central Area on Thursday night.

Hancock (0-1) has a 3:30pm contest at New York Mills on Saturday.