“Tonight, we got hit in the mouth,” said Hillcrest Head Coach Ryan Garvin.  “We knew we would, KMS is a good team.  They are well-coached.  Despite 13 turnovers in the first half I thought our resilience was positive through much of the half.  We challenged attacks at the rim and attacked the rim on offense.  I think we played physical enough to make everything they got a difficult offensive trip.”

Garvin continued, “In the second half, we simply did not take care of the ball well enough against their press and dug ourselves a hole.  I made some adjustments against their offense that were probably ill-advised, which widened the gap.  DeAndre Holloway (31 points) did some great work around the rim for them and it was simply difficult to keep him off the glass, although our effort was pretty valiant for most of the game.  Isaac Rudningen (13 points) did a great job of handling the ball and getting the Fighting Saints into their offense.  We had a hard time making him uncomfortable.  He’s a tough ball player.”

The Comets were led by Noah Brumfield (18 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists) with a double-double.  Preston Berge added 9 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists and Sean Berge had 7 points.

“We have a lot of potential, which means we have a lot of work to do,” said Garvin.  “The good part is that these young men are, I believe, up for the challenge.”

Hillcrest (5-1) suffered their first loss of the season in this game.  They will host Parkers Prairie on Tuesday night.