Kylee Dingwall and Sydney Schaefer were the top scorers for Brandon-Evansville with 17 and 15 points, respectively.  Olivia Otto scored 13 points, grabbed 8 rebounds, dished out 2 assists and came up with 2 steals.  Kiley Lund was also in double digits with 10 points.

“It was a close ball game pretty much the entire way, until Hillcrest went on a big run midway through the second half to get out to about an eight point lead,” reported Head Coach Zachary Traphagen of the Chargers.  “I thought for a stretch there that the Hillcrest girls were getting to every loose ball and really out hustled us to get second, third and fourth chances.  Once we started playing with a little more urgency, we went on a big run of our own to retake the lead and hold on in the end.  We made some big free throws down the stretch and made just enough plays to earn a season opening victory.  Proud of the resilience that was shown by our girls tonight and we need to use this performance to really just continue to build confidence into our next game at Bertha-Hewitt on Friday.”

Madison Ballweg poured in 23 points to lead the Comets.  Ella Knutson recorded a double-double with 16 points and 13 rebounds.  Madi Foss contributed 13 points, 4 assists and 6 rebounds and Regan Wiertzema had a team high 14 rebounds, 7 of them on the offensive boards.

“It’s always nice to play the first game of the season,” said Hillcrest Head Coach Hannah Clark.  “It gives our team a good benchmark of where we are at and shows us the areas where we need to improve.  The girls played hard, but couldn’t quite pull it out.  We found ourselves out of position on the defensive end and we gave up a lot of easy points in the paint.  We don’t have a ton of depth and foul trouble caused our players to have to play lots of minutes without a break.  We had some great offensive possessions.  We just have to become more consistent in order to get into a nice rhythm for the game.”

Hillcrest will host Ashby on Thursday night.