"This was a fun one tonight," commented Battle Lake Head Coach Brady Cameron.  "We got down 13 in the first half and I didn't know if our guys were going to roll over or fight for the rest of the game.  Our guys decided that they were going to fight and we got ourselves to within 4 by halftime.  In the second half the Comets came out and put us down 11 quickly and I thought the same thing and again we decided to fight and finished the game on a 29-14 run to secure the win.  Mason Dalluge was huge for us tonight going 6/9 from the 3-pt line but more importantly he held Noah Brumfield to 12 points and 5/14 shooting.  I am proud of this team's fight tonight and I hope we can continue this momentum into the last 3 games and the playoffs."

“A battle against Battle tonight,” stated Hillcrest Head Coach Ryan Garvin.  “I loved our energy and effort in the first half.  We did a lot of nice things on the defensive side of the ball in the first half, but Battle kept it close off of four 3’s from Mason Dalluge and 16 points from Jack Mekalson who hit a number of difficult shots.  Gabe Swedenburg and Zane Holmquist did a really nice job making Jack work for everything he got.”

Luke Christensen registered a double-double for the Comets with 17 points and 13 rebounds.  Noah Brumfield added 12 points and 6 rebounds and Ethan Swedberg finished with 6 points and 6 boards.  Preston Berge scored 14 on 5-of-8 shooting from the field and 4-of-5 from the free throw line.

“In the second half we did some nice things defensively, but just couldn’t build on our lead,” noted Coach Garvin.  “Twelve turnovers, largely unforced errors, really killed us at the beginning and midway through the second half.  That, paired with 14 straight possessions where we didn’t get a ball reversal during the middle section of the game really hurt us tonight.  We became impatient and lost our composure when it counted.  We also shot 19-of-49 in the paint, which obviously hurts.”

Hillcrest (20-4, 15-1 LEC) will travel to Twin Valley on Friday to face Norman Country East/Ulen-Hitterdal.

Battle Lake (12-11, 8-8 LEC) has a road game at New York Mills on Thursday.