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It is one thing when you have to battle the teams in the tough Six Rivers East but it is another thing when you have to battle the "Year of the COVID" along with it.
Barneveld's boys basketball team is fresh off a two week shutdown that had been too often the rule for many teams this season. The opponent was Albany, a team that has played 20 games. The Eagles had been trying to catch up with practice this past week but had been denied competition for a 14 day period. Other teams faced with that problem this season have had their struggles and Barneveld is no exception.
The teams were tied at 25 at intermission but the Comets were able to pull away for a 53-44 win. They were the better shooting team in this one with 11 of their baskets coming from beyond the 3-point arc.
Clay Hulbert put in 16 of the 25 Comets points the first half and finished with 21. Carson Brewer added 16, taking over the second half with 13. The Comets made four threes the final half with Brewer netting three and Hurlbert 1.
Trendon Barsness put in 17 point, 11 in the back and forth first half, and Chase Ignatius added 12.
The game was important in getting the Eagles back to play and also was needed to honor the seniors for Senior Day.
"This was a tough one for us today," said coach Tyler Sullivan. "It was a special day in the fact that we recognized a group of great seniors, but was a game that got away from us in the end. After being off for 2 1/2 weeks for quarantine reasons, and able to start back with practice on Tuesday, I felt like we got a great few days of work done but we were not able to execute today. I didn't feel like we were as prepared as we should have been,"
"This has been a crazy year to begin with, and then to have the quarantine when we did, I feel like that took away some of the momentum we may have had," Sullivan added. "As I said, I am very fortunate we were able to get our last regular season game in to honor our seniors who have worked so hard to get to this point of their career. Now we try to have a short memory and turn our focus to make a run at the tournament. We have a great group, and as we re-focus, I am looking forward to making a run these next few weeks."
SCORE BY HALVES
Albany 25 28 53
Barneveld 25 19 44
BOX SCORE
ALBANY 53: (fg-ft-tp) Bakken 2-0-5, Hulbert 8-0-21, Kass 0-0-0, Johnson 0-0-0, Schroeder 0-0-0, R. Brewer 1-1-3, Grosz 0-0-0, Gertsch 1-2-5, Anderson 1-1-3, C. Brewer 5-2-16, Eastwood 0-0-0 Totals 18-6/11-53 Fouls-19
BARNEVELD 44: Helgeson 1-0-2, Owens 0-2-2, Barsness 6-3-17, Bigler 1-0-2, Hopfensperger 1-0-2, Poad 0-0-0, Fishnick 0-0-0, Neumaier 1-0-3, Ignatius 4-4-12, Hazen 0-0-0, Oimoen 2-0-4 Totals 16-9/22-44 Fouls-14
3 point goals:
A-(11) Hulbert 5, C. Brewer 4, Bakken 1, Gertsch 1
B-(3) Barsness 2, Neumaier