"We talk to our guys about playing a full 36 minutes every night and tonight I think our guys would agree with me in saying we only played 18 minutes," assessed Battle Lake Head Coach Brady Cameron.  "We did not have a good 1st half and didn't execute our game plan.  It didn't help that we missed some easy shots in the 1st half and our guys got down on themselves a little bit.  We talked about executing our game plan better in the 2nd half and it showed on the scoreboard at the end.  Our defense got after it in the 2nd half and  held Underwood to 4/17 from inside the arc and gave up 3 offensive boards compared to 9 in the 1st half.  We struggled to make shots in the paint in the 1st half going 6/19 but the guys refocused at halftime and shot 14/19 in the 2nd half in the paint.  In total tonight I think we did a great job of taking care of the ball and only had 9 turnovers on the night, 3 in the 2nd half.  In order to give ourselves a chance against Border West on Friday night we need to play a full 36 minutes like our 2nd half was tonight."

Jack Mekalson (25 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals), Owen Buehler (14 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 5 steals) and Drew Johnson (17 points, 5 rebounds) were all in double figures for the Battlers.  Other contributions came from Mason Dalluge (9 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 steals, 2 blocks) and Bradyn Roisum (6 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, 2 blocks).  Jacob Radermacher chipped in with 6 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 blocked shots.

“We played hard tonight and had a solid first half,” said Head Coach Kellen Shebeck of the Rockets. “Battle Lake came out after halftime and knocked down some shots, and we just weren’t able to respond and match them. We kept our composure well, and I’m proud of how our guys carry themselves on the court tonight.”

Underwood was led by Gavin Pausch and Drew Evavold with 12 and 11 points, respectively.  Owen Harig added 9 and Cole Peterson chipped in with 8.

Battle Lake (16-3, 10-1 LEC) has won ten straight games.  They will play conference leading Border West on Friday night in Wheaton.

Underwood (9-9, 6-6 LEC) will travel to Evansville to face the Chargers on Friday night.