Leaders for the Comets were Noah Brumfield (20 points, 5 rebounds), Luke Christensen (18 points, 13 rebounds), Ethan Swedberg (11 points, 6 rebounds), Sean Berge (9 points) and Gabe Swedenburg (8 points, 4 rebounds).

“Our defensive intensity wasn’t at a level consistent with how we’ve been playing the last week, which brought a level of frustration, but we were able to capitalize on their mistakes and create a marginal lead,” noted Coach Garvin.  “Luke, Noah and Gabe had nine, eight and eight, respectively, and we led by 9 after one half.  In the second half, we had some opportunities to open up a lead with free throws, but couldn’t knock them down and Ashby was able to remain within striking distance for the whole night.  Easton Nelson did a great job for the Arrows creating scoring opportunities for himself.”

Nelson had a team high 18 points for Ashby and was joined in double figures by Jake Norby with 14, Kellen Dahlen with 10 and Richie Johnson with 10.

Coach Holsten of the Arrows commented, “The Comets began and ended the first half with significant scoring runs.  In the last two minutes of the half, Hillcrest increased their lead from 4 to 9 points.  Throughout the game, we couldn’t stop fouling on their drives to the basket.  We also gave up too many second shot opportunities.  The coaching staff is proud of the competitive spirit exhibited by all our players tonight.”

“Nothing came easily tonight,” said Garvin.  “So, I was proud of how our boys kept grinding out each possession both on the offensive and defensive end.  We would extend a lead, Ashby would score a tough bucket and we’d go back and grind out another offensive possession.  We didn’t help ourselves on the defensive end, but got buckets and stops when we needed to in order to pull out a tough conference game against a quality opponent.”

Hillcrest (14-2, 11-0 LEC) travels to Wheaton on Friday night for a game with Border West.

Ashby (7-11, 4-7 LEC) has a home game with Hancock on Friday.