Tate Inniger scored a game high 18 points and completed his double double with 11 rebounds to lead the Trojans.  He was joined in double figures by Gannon Bolgrean and Carson Hagen with 14 and 10 points, respectively.  Bolgrean also had a double double with 10 rebounds, while adding a team high 3 steals.  Zach Bredman led the team with 4 assists.  Barnesville won the rebounding battle, 38-30.

"Had a big one tonight at home against Pelican Rapids," said Barnesville Head Coach Matt Askegaard.  "A lot could still happen, but we needed this to get us to the #5 seed as we lost to them earlier in the year. I can't speak for them, but they needed this one just as bad as us and that's a recipe for a great game.  The Vikings came out with the "guns a blazing" and put us down 11-0 to start. I took a timeout to allow us to regroup and we did. I told the boys we had opportunities and shots just weren't falling. Defensively, we were doing a decent job, but we just weren't scoring. We then went on a 13-2 run to get back into the game. However, after that we were not efficient on offense and our defense kept us in the game. We ended the half down 6 at 26-20."

Askegaard continued, "We made adjustments at halftime and the boys really bought into and trusted what we needed to do. One of our biggest adjustments was just slowing down on the offensive end and using our vision to recognize when we had our mismatches. We did a much better job in the second half of doing that which enabled us to get a bunch of easy baskets. Our offensive actions just needed to be more simple and they were. This enabled us to get a 10 point lead with about 7-8 minutes to go.  However, Pelican didn't quit and cut the lead to 4 with about 3-4 minutes to go. We took a timeout, regrouped and got the lead back to 10 and kept it there the rest of the way not just with great shot selection, but also great defense and rebounding. It was a great HOL win tonight. Something we really needed."

Charlie Larson led Pelican Rapids with 13 points.  Ian Fahje added 11 and Miguel Torres had 10.

“We had trouble generating good looks on offense tonight and eventually our defense wore down in the second half as Barnesville took control in the last seven minutes,” stated Pelican Rapids Head Coach John Gullingsrud.

Barnesville (15-7, 5-6 HOL) will travel to Barrett on Thursday to face West Central Area.

Pelican Rapids (12-10, 4-6 HOL) has another conference game on Friday at Breckenridge.