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Hornets Advance with 6A Playoff Win Over Hillcrest

By Craig Olson, 03/13/23, 8:45PM CDT

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The Henning Hornets continued their outstanding season with a 68-54 win over Hillcrest Lutheran Academy on Monday night at 'The Hive' in Perham.  The win puts the Hornets at 27-1 and send them into the Section 6A North Sub-Section championship game against Battle Lake on Wednesday night at 7:00pm at the Kennedy Secondary School in Fergus Falls.

Henning went on an 18 point run to establish a 20-5 lead early in the game and extended that lead to 26-7 before the Comets started a 19-14 run of their own to pull to within four points.  A 3-pointer by Kale Misegades just before halftime gave the Hornets a 33-26 lead.  The 3 gave Misegades 18 first half points.  He finished with a game high 25 points, including 5 3's, while leading the Hornets with 4 assists.

Hillcrest got the Henning lead down to two points at one time in the second half, but the Hornets finished strong as Tyson Misegades hit all 9 of his second half free throws and the Hornets made 17-of-22 from the line in the game.  Tyson had 24 points with 21 of them coming after halftime.  The Misegades brothers were joined in double figures by Mason Hammer with 19 points.  Lane Dilly had a team high 8 rebounds and 4 steals.  Henning had only 7 turnovers on the night.

“We’re excited to move on and earn another day of practice,” said Henning Head Coach Randy Misegades. “Our guys fought through some adversity again tonight which is what playoff basketball is all about. Hillcrest presents a lot of matchup issues. Wednesday will be another extremely tough opponent.” 

Leaders for Hillcrest were Luke Christensen (23 points, 5 3's, 8 rebounds), Erik Bjorndahl (10 points, 2 3's), Noah Brumfield (7 points), Matthew Knutson (6 points) and Justin Peterson (4 assists, 6 rebounds).

“So proud of how our boys battled back from the hole they made themselves early in the game,” stated Hillcrest Head Coach Ryan Garvin. “Hard to be done. Feel sick knowing that I won't be in the gym with this group of young men and they won’t be competing in the gym in the same way tomorrow. They were so fun to grow with this year.  Unfortunately, early, we didn’t match Henning’s hustle. They beat us back in transition and had more of a sense of urgency on the defensive side of the ball. We tried to attack the first side without ball reversals. We knew what we wanted and were simply impatient. Ten TOs in the first half really tells that story. Thankfully, Erik Bjorndahl and Luke Christensen knocked down a few big threes to keep it close. We were able to battle back at the rim and we were able to get some key stops with Mason Hammer on the bench with foul trouble. However, we couldn't entirely close the gap and Henning closed it out with free throws.”

Garvin continued, “so proud of Noah Brumfield for battling through a bum ankle tonight. He only scored seven points, but he was so active on the defensive end and really did a good job disrupting Henning's offense. He was a big time gamer tonight. Matthew Knutson had a big impact on the game tonight as well with his defensive effort and timely offensive put-backs. I wouldn't want to go to battle without him.”

Hillcrest ends their season with 20 wins and 8 losses.