“Fun win tonight for our boys,” said Hillcrest Head Coach Ryan Garvin. “I'm just so impressed and proud of them for how hard they play, how much effort they give. It is a beautiful thing to watch them work together.”  

The Comets jumped out to a 7-0 lead thanks to some great shooting from Erik Bjorndahl, who finished with 10 points on the night.  “Rothsay Coach Taylor Fuhs called a timeout that seemed to calm their boys down a bit and they played with great energy against us.”

Garvin continued, “I liked almost everything about our first half except a couple of our 3 point attempts and some careless turnovers. Gabe Swedenburg and Noah Brumfield made things on the perimeter difficult for Rothsay and Luke Christensen, Preston Berge and Matthew Knutson were there to challenge them at the rim.” 

Despite being keyed on, Coach Garvin thought Noah Brumfield did a nice job of distributing the ball and making the most of his opportunities at the rim. He finished with 21 points and 10 rebounds. Christensen also got some time on the receiving of some defensive attention and responded well to it. He finished with 14 points and 11 rebounds. “Preston Berge had some great defensive moments and contributed in big ways on the boards and primarily at the rim finishing with 11 points, 10 rebounds,” added Garvin. “Sean Berge and Ethan Swedberg played some extended minutes tonight with Justin Petersen out and they seemed to handle those moments of opportunity well.  The Rothsay boys worked really hard tonight and would not go down without taking some final swings. They battled to the end. Credit to those boys and Coach Fuhs for coming ready to work tonight.”

Rothsay was led by Matthew Danielson with 15 points and Karson Jensen with a dozen.

“Really proud of how hard our boys played tonight,” said Coach Fuhs of the Tigers.  “We competed and never backed down against a talented and well-coach Hillcrest team.  We cut the lead to 5 in the second half, but just couldn’t get the final push.”

Hillcrest (7-1) will host Park Christian School at 5:00pm Saturday.

Rothsay (1-8) is at Parkers Prairie on Tuesday.