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The Barnesville boys’ basketball team host Heart O’ Lakes Conference leading Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton in a Saturday matinee and the game did not disappoint. In the first half Barnesville jumped out to a nice lead right away and led 40-26 at the half. DGF rallied in the second half to outscore the Trojans by one and pick up a 61-60 victory.
Barnesville hit 38% (21-54) of their field goal attempts, 40% (10-25) from 3-point range, and DGF made 41% (10-24) of their 3’s and 36% (19-52) of their overall field goal attempts. Rebounds were 41-34, Barnesville. DGF had only 5 turnovers and Barnesville turned the ball over 16 times on the day.
“Offensively we were pushing and attacking the basket and getting easy, wide open looks and we were converting early on,” said Head Coach Matt Askegaard of Barnesville. “The game is easy when the ball is going in the basket and we were making it look easy, almost too easy at times.
Defensively we were doing a nice job on Owen Leach, making him work for his shot. We were able to keep him out of the middle which allowed us to play a solid team defense. We were tough in the first half. Not saying we weren't tough in the second half, but we were just flat out tough.”
To start the second half Barnesville came out and buried two 3s to start to get their lead to 19 with just under 16 minutes to play. DGF took a timeout to kill the momentum. “I knew they were going to make a run and it was going to be interesting to see how we responded,” added Askegaard. “And within 3 possessions the lead was down to 10 and we took a timeout. Offensively we just went cold, like there was a lid on the basket. We were able to get good looks, but they just wouldn't go down. The situation was eerily similar to the game against DL. Defensively, we allowed Leach too much freedom and space. He's an outstanding player individually, but also makes his teammates better. We had 4 really good looks down the stretch, but just couldn't convert. It's tough to take a loss like this, but it will only make us better.”
Tate Inniger (17 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals), Carson Hagen (13 points, 5 rebounds), Zach Bredman (12 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals) and Gannon Bolgrean (9 point, 9 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals) were the leaders for Barnesville.
The loss drops Barnesville to 7-4 overall and 2-4 in the conference. They will host Crookston on Tuesday and Perham on Thursday.
DGF (10-2, 6-0 HOL) has now won eight straight games. They will host East Grand Forks on Monday, Breckenridge on Thursday and Kindred on Saturday.