Braves put up a fight but Eagles take control for win

An ever improving Belmont team played host Barneveld even the first half, signaling this was a basketball game.

The Eagles regrouped and pulled away from a 30-30 halftime score to take down the Braves, 76-65 in a Six Rivers game Friday.

Konnor Jasinski and Hunter Larson led the second half surge with 14 and 13 points. Larson finished the game with 20 points and Jasinski added 19. Tarek Marx also reached double figures for the Golden Eagles with 10.

Tanner Simmons had a 12 point first half to lead the Braves. He was the game’s leading scorer with 22.  

Thomas Freeman added 19 points to Belmont’s total and Wyatt Temperly came through with 11.

Eagles coach Tyler Sullivan came away from the game with respect for his team and for the challenge mounted by the Braves.

“What a great win for our team tonight,” Sullivan said. “I am so proud of the effort from every single guy and the way we gutted out a win against a really good Belmont team.”  

It was a special night fo the seniors who were honored for their committment to the program over their high school careers.

“I am so happy for our seniors as we honored them tonight for senior night, and they showed up big time,” Sullivan pointed out. “I am really going to miss this group when this ride ends as they are so fun to be around.”  

Sullivan feels the Braves will make some noise down the stretch.

“I tell you what, Belmont is going to be a problem going forward,” he said. “They are really disciplined and athletic, and they made us work all night long. We made some adjustments defensively to try to offset a couple of their players, and I thought we did a really good job forcing some shots and rebounding in big time moments. We found some flow offensively in spurts and did a much better job of finishing tonight, and we were able to knock some shots down to stretch it out late in the game.”

Sullivan felt the outcome was a true team win.

“It was just a really good game for all our guys, and I felt we earned this one tonight.”

SCORE BY HALVES

Belmont       30       35      65

Barneveld    30       46      76

BOX SCORE

BELMONT 65: (fg-ft-tp) Simmons 7-5-22, Austin 2-0-5, Kettler 1-0-2, Temperly 3-4-11, Palzkill 0-2-2, Ruiz 0-0-0, Knebel 1-0-2, Kress 1-1-4, Freeman 5-8-19.Totals 19-20/28-65. Fouls-20. Fouled out-Knebel

BARNEVELD 76: Shipman 2-1-5, T. Owens 1-0-3, Jasinski 5-7-19, Knight  0-0-0, Poad 0-0-0, Larson 6-5-20, Marx 5-0-10, Kramer 0-0-0, Kephart 2-1-5, Malin 0-0-0, Thousand 3-2-8, G. Owens 2-0-4, Lease 1-0-2. Totals 27-16/19-76 Fouls-23

3 point goals

BE-Simmons 3, Austin 1, Temperly 1, Kress 1, Freeman 1

Ba-Jasinski 2, T. Owens 1, Larson 3