“This was a good win for our boys,” added Garvin. “I would say we played B-defense in terms of an overall grade.  We needed to contain a little better as we allowed Braxtyn Cameron (18 points) to catch and shoot some threes that we needed to take away, and I think we allowed far too many offensive rebounds.  That said, I loved our aggressiveness in the full court in the second half.  That was a huge difference maker as we held them to just 14 points in the second half.”

"Tonight started out with a text about 5:30 telling me that Jack Mekalson was under the weather and not going to be able to play," recounted Battle Lake Head Coach Brady Cameron.  "I knew he hadn't been feeling well and missed practice yesterday but it got worse today and we had to play without our PG and one of our leaders tonight.  I thought we played a great first 12 minutes tonight though.  We had it tied at 18 and they finished the half on a 20-4 run, and in that run Braxtyn Cameron went to the bench with 3 fouls so we were very short handed at the PG spot at that time.  Credit to Hillcrest, they kicked in the defensive intensity late in the first half and it stayed with them throughout the second half."

Aidan Heggem didn't score for the Battlers but he led them with 7 rebounds, dished out a pair of assists and had two steals.

Noah Brumfield had a game high 21 points, going for 12 in the second half, and Luke Christensen scored 12 of his 15 in the first half.

“I thought our boys handled Battle Lake’s zone pretty well tonight,” assessed Coach Garvin.  “We passed and cut and found some nice holes to work in.  It was great to have Lincoln Nash find some success for a quick stretch halfway through the first half to help extend the lead.  Noah Bjorndahl also had a couple of great cuts to the rim for easy finishes.”

Hillcrest (10-2, 7-0 LEC) has a 12:45pm game against Brandon-Evansville on Saturday at Target Center.

Battle Lake (4-10) will host Rothsay on Monday night.