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Radermacher Lifts Battle Lake to Win Over Hillcrest with Buzzer Beater Basket

By Craig Olson, 01/20/23, 1:00AM CST

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Jacob Radermacher hit the game winning shot at the buzzer on Thursday night, lifting the Battle Lake boys’ basketball team to a 62-60 win over Hillcrest Lutheran Academy.  Owen Buehler had hit a 3-pointer to tie the game at 60-60, setting the state for Radermacher’s heroics.

“Great game for the fans tonight,” said Head Coach Ryan Garvin of Hillcrest. “They got their money's worth. We battled back from 11 down and had to make another run after going down 10 a second time. We had a chance to win it, but Battle Lake came up with some big shots at the end. They played really well. Coach Cameron has done a great job with them this year.”

Buehler scored 24 points, secured 9 rebounds and had 5 assists to lead the Battlers.  He was joined in double figures by Drew Johnson and Jack Mekalson with 13 each.  Johnson also had 5 assists and Mekalson grabbed 8 rebounds and dished out 3 assists.  Bradyn Roisum had 8 points, 5 rebounds and 2 blocked shots.  Battle Lake held a 37-26 lead at the half.

"Tonight was a typical Battle Lake/Hillcrest matchup, it was a total battle all night," noted Coach Cameron of the Battlers.  "We got hot to start the game and got out to a 15 point lead in the 1st half and we defended at a high level.  Mason, Drew, and Jacob did a great job in the 1st half on Brumfield and Christensen, but we let Brumfield get going in the 2nd half when we got into some foul trouble and he willed them back into the game.  We didn't attack the zone well in the 2nd half and didn't get them in foul trouble or get to the free throw line and it almost cost us tonight along with some lazy passes and some bad turnovers.   I give a lot of props to our 3 seniors to help us win this game.  Owen made a huge 3 in the final 1:30 to tie the game at 60, Drew had a huge steal with 20 seconds left on the inbounds play, and Jacob made a huge shot to win it for us.  Hillcrest is a well coached team and always a tough game for us.  Coach Garvin changed things up for them in the 2nd half and it caused us problems."

“We came out pretty flat on the defensive end in the first half,” said Coach Garvin. “We didn't play very fundamentally or very physically and they largely got what they wanted where they wanted it. We decided to come out in a zone to start the second half and the boys made a run to cut their lead to 43-39 with 10 minutes left. But Battle was able to extend it back to 10 again on two Buehler threes. However, our boys showed some resilience and fought back playing some pretty great  team defense and we were able to generate some turnovers and transition opportunities in which Noah Brumfield scored 14 straight of his game high 40 points.”

Joining Brumfield in double figures was Luke Christensen with 12 points. Brumfield added 11 rebounds and 2 assists. Christensen also grabbed 4 rebounds.  Gabe Swedenburg had 4 points, 5 rebounds and multiple steals.                                                                                                                                                                                        

“Ultimately it was our subpar defensive start that hurt us early and out of which we had to dig ourselves for much of the game,” noted Garvin. “And then our turnovers. They were big for us. Yes, the ones at the end hurt, but there were many moments throughout the game where we threw careless passes and didn't play with the kind of ball toughness that we're going to need to play with to compete in the playoffs.  But we'll bounce back. These are correctable things. I'm proud of how we finished overall. Battle Lake is a really good team and they showed up and took it to us tonight.”

Battle Lake (10-3, 5-1 LEC) plays at Rothsay on Monday and will host Frazee on Tuesday.

Hillcrest (9-2, 5-1 LEC) will play at Hancock on Tuesday night.