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Luke Christensen (22 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists, 6 blocks) put together a solid all-around game on Thursday night, leading the Hillcrest Comets to a 63-46 win over the Border West Buccaneers. Noah Brumfield added 14 and Preston Berge had 8 points. “Preston was fantastic for us on the glass tonight, even though his final numbers might not show it,” said Hillcrest Head Coach Ryan Garvin. “I love our energy for most of the night. I thought Gabe Swedenburg was a game changer on the defensive end. It was hard to bring him off the court!”
Border West jumped out to a 6-0 lead after a tip-off 3 and an and-one from Holden Rinke (11 points) in the first minute of play. The Comets kept their composure and built a 36-23 halftime advantage. “We missed some more make-able lay-ups tonight, but got lots of great looks on the perimeter, making 12-of-25 from outside from six different guys,” noted Coach Garvin. “I liked the way we used the paint tonight. Border West did a great job taking away a lot of looks from us, but we played with a bit more vision that we did on Tuesday.”
The Buccaneers put together an 18-5 run to open the second half and tied the game at 41-41. “Our boys didn’t play with quite as much intensity as they did in the first half,” stated Garvin. “But, they kept their heads and stopped the bleeding, defensively. Ethan Swedberg (11 points, 8 rebounds) hit a huge 3, we got a jump ball and we slowly slugged it out over the final 10 minutes for a 17 point win.”
The Comets were without Sean Berge, however, Garvin liked what he saw from other players stepping up, “Noah Bjorndahl played some great D and hit a big 3 in the first half. Leo Nordick didn’t play in the second half, but his limited minutes in the first half were critical to give Luke, Noah and Ethan some rest and make some defensive contributions in the process. He will be huge for us down the stretch.”
Kyle Kremer (18 points, 5 rebounds), Gunnar Hoffman (14 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 block) and Rinke (11 points, 12 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals) led the Buccaneers.
"Hillcrest caused a lot of turnovers tonight especially in the first half," said Border West Head Coach Jordon Roos. "Their pressure caused us to rush and not execute our press break and zone offense as well as we needed to and they built a nice lead at halftime. We were able to regroup at halftime and made a great rally in the second half to tie it at 41 with about 8 minutes to go. However, after that we weren’t able to hit many shots and Hillcrest pulled away. It was a great effort in the second half and I think a big growing experience for our squad."
Hillcrest (5-1) takes a five game winning streak into the Christmas break. They resume play on Thursday, January 4 at home against Lake Park-Audubon.
Border West (2-4) will play in the Lake Park-Audubon Holiday Tournament on December 27 and 28.