“What a hard fought HOL win last night against Hawley,” said Barnesville Head Coach Matt Askegaard. “Nothing better on a Friday night. I felt we played a very good, solid first half. We were very efficient on offense in the first half. I believe we got the lead to as much as 13 at one point. We were able to get the ball inside to Tate Inniger and he was able to get Sam Senske into some foul trouble. We went into half with a 44-33 lead. However, we knew the game was not even close to over.”

Inniger led Barnesville with 22 points, 14 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals.  Gannon Bolgrean finished with 14 points and 4 boards, and Wyatt Suter had 9 points, 3 assists and 2 steals.  Carson Hagen and Owen Riddle each scored 8 points and Zach Bredman contributed 7 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists.

“In the second half at about the 8-9 minute mark we forced Hawley into a player control foul after getting consecutive baskets,” recalled Coach Askegaard. “Hawley then took a timeout as the momentum was in our favor. However, we had at least 2, if not 3 possessions in a row where I don't even think we got a shot. Here we had a really good chance to put the game out of reach, but we just didn't capitalize.  Hawley then made a run in the final few minutes to actually take the lead by 1. We turned the ball over in a few situations and the Nuggets hit some shots. However, down the stretch we tightened the screws on defense and really spread the floor on offense to force Hawley to come after us. We haven't shot free throws well this year, but we made them when we had to.”

Hawley made 46% (26-56) of their field goal attempts.  Brevin Stoa scored a game high 25 points to lead the Nuggets.  He was joined in double digits by Senske and Landon Bakke with 10 points each.

“Tonight was a real tough battle for us,” said Hawley Head Coach Nathan Stoa. “Coach Askegaard has his squad playing hard, with great energy, and for each other. The atmosphere was a lot of fun tonight. Our guys were able to make some things happen in the second half that put us within reach at the end of the game. Barnesville grabbed some crucial rebounds that we couldn’t quite recover from. We need to come out of the gates better, but I’m proud of our guys for continuing to battle to try and steal a league game in a hostile road environment.” 

“It was a great team win in a fantastic atmosphere,” added Askegaard. “We head to Perham on Tuesday, host Lake Park Audubon on Thursday and then host Detroit Lakes on Friday in what will be a busy week.”

Hawley (4-4) will host Pelican Rapids on Tuesday and play at Perham on Saturday.