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Brumfield Reaches 1000 Career Points as Comets Advance with OT Win Over Falcons

By Craig Olson, 03/09/23, 12:15AM CST

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Hillcrest hit 13 3’s and junior Noah Brumfield reach 1000 career points on Wednesday night as the Comets survived an overtime battle with Park Christian to keep their season alive in the Section 6A boys’ basketball playoffs.  The game was tied at 58-58 at the end of regulation and Hillcrest got key 3’s from Brumfield and Luke Christensen in OT.  Preston Berge also went 4-for-4 from the free throw line in the overtime session to help the Comets to the win.

“For Noah to go over 1000 points for his career and over 600 for this season is an incredible accomplishment,” stated Hillcrest Head Coach Ryan Garvin.  “This was an absolutely beautiful playoff game with Park Christian.  Our fans showed up, Park Christian traveled really well and it was so loud!  Former Hillcrest teammate of mine, and father of Preston and Sean Berge, Daniel Berge, was celebrating the simple fact that all of these boys got to play in this type of atmosphere.”

Christensen (22 points, 4 3’s, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 4 steals) and Brumfield (20 points, 4 3’s, 3 rebounds, 3 assists) were the statistical leaders for Hillcrest.  Preston Berge added 9 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists, Gabe Swedenburg had 4 assists and 3 steals, and Matthew Knutson finished with 6 boards, 5 deflections and 3 assists.  Hillcrest shot 41% from the field and won the rebounding battle, 30-25.

“We came out with really good energy in the first half,” added Coach Garvin.  “We moved the ball pretty well and, I think, made some pretty good decisions getting the ball through their zone.  We seemed comfortable.  I think we kind of fell in love with the 3-ball in the first half, so going into halftime, we knew we needed to make sure we didn’t settle in the second half.  In the second half, the Falcons did a great job of spreading us out and getting to the paint.  We were really slow on our rotations.  We had a lot of opportunities to secure rebounds or loose balls, but we struggled to come up with a lot of the 50/50 balls and Park capitalized.  Although we didn’t move the ball particularly well in the overtime, we knocked down some big free throws and then Noah and Luke stepped up and made back-to-back come-from-behind threes.  Park had a couple of last second opportunities, but came up short.”

Kyler Card led the Falcons with 25 points and 4 assists.  Bridger Carlson add 15, Daniel Sweers had 12 points and 8 rebounds, and Isaac Jacobson finished with 10 points.  The Falcons shot 51% for the game.

Hillcrest will face Henning in a quarterfinal round game at 1:00pm Saturday at ‘The Hive’ in Perham.

 


PHOTO by ELLIOT PRIBBENOW


Both teams are joined by fans in a post game prayer. PHOTO PROVIDED