Defensive dominance

There was no lack of defense for either Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn or Unity Christian in their War Eagle Conference basketball game on Dec. 21 in Hartley. But the visiting Knights were best able to advantage of available scoring opportunities, helping them earn a 58-42 win.

The Hawk offense was consistent but not high-scoring in the first half. They were held to seven points in each quarter while Unity Christian's offense was doubly productive, giving them a 27-14 half time lead.

"I thought they defended us really tough and made things difficult for us on the offensive end. We struggled to find any rhythm and flow offensively with how they were playing us," said Hawk coach Naet Hoaglund. "Unity Christian did a great job of doubling, even tripling down on our post touches. They made it really tough for Lance [Berends] to get going."

Kooper Ebel was H-M-S's leading scorer with 17 points. Berends' 11 points were half of his season scoring average. Mason Brinkman added nine points. No other stats were posted as of press deadline.

H-M-S was doubly effective on the offensive end in the second half, scoring 14 points in each quarter. But the Knights' lead grew to 16 points and the Hawks were never able to get the deficit under double digits.

"It was a battle and much more competitive than the final score would say. I thought our kids played hard and competed the best they could," Hoaglund noted.

Hoaglund was not disappointed with the Hawks' defense, which held the Knights to 38 percent shooting from the field.

"For the most part, I thought we defended really well. We were forcing tough shots," he said. "We just allowed too many second chance points and points off turnovers."

H-M-S fell to 3-4 overall and 1-2 in the War Eagle Conference. Until they resume play on Jan. 4 at Graettinger-Terril/Ruthven-Ayrshire, the Hawks will use the break to get healthy and recover from an illness bug that had impacted practices.

"It'll be a good time to regroup and focus on us for a while before heading into the second half of the season," Hoaglund said.