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Hillcrest Lutheran Academy traveled to Moorhead on Saturday for a non-conference boys’ basketball game against Park Christian. The Falcons led 28-21 at the half and went on to record a 56-45 win over the Comets. “Credit to Park Christian, they are a 6-6 team that could just as well be 9-3,” said Hillcrest Head Coach Ryan Garvin. “They played hard and did all the things a team needs to do to win. They hit big shots when it mattered.”
Hillcrest was led by 25 points and 7 rebounds from Luke Christensen. Noah Brumfield had 18 points and 5 boards and Ethan Swedberg led the Comets with 14 rebounds.
“We talked a lot about containment tonight before the game, yet we struggled to do that in any capacity, zone or man,” noted Coach Garvin. “Bridger Carlson (18 points) got to the rim on us and we just didn’t have the team defensive resolve to get and stay in front of him. At the end of the first half we had a chance to cut the lead to 3 with under 25 seconds left and had 2 turnovers and then let Bridger take it straight down the paint, sending us into halftime down 7.”
Carlson made 7-of-13 field goal attempts and was the only Falcon to reach double figures. Tyler Loeb had a solid all-around game with 6 points, 9 rebounds, 6 assists and 4 steals. Gavin Giese added 8 points and Isaac Jacobson contributed 6 points, 3 assists and 3 steals.
“Offensively, we had our worst night of the season at the rim,” added Garvin. “Just struggled to get anything to go. And from the outside, so many of our misses were short. Our ball reversals were poor tonight with so many of our opportunities difficult and contested. It’s hard to win when you keep the ball on the first side of the floor. We also lost in the 50-50 ball category and it wasn’t always because of a lack of effort. So many of those situations ended up hurting us throughout the game. Looking back, I think I did a poor job of taking care of these guys this week.”
Garvin concluded with, “Our theme this year is ‘a smooth seas never made a skilled sailor’. This is definitely a rough sea situation. The beauty of the moment is that rough seas are opportunities to improve. It’s character-refining, which, as basketball coaches, we are in the business of helping our students through. The process is usually hard and not fun. But, since life is full of losses, this moment provides a great opportunity to learn how to appropriately respond to them.”
Hillcrest (8-2) had their 8 game winning streak come to an end with the loss. They will try to bounce back when they travel to Underwood for a Little Eight Conference matchup on Tuesday night. They also have conference games on Thursday in Battle Lake and on Saturday against Brandon-Evansville at Target Center in downtown Minneapolis.