By Chad Koenen

Publisher

New York Mills kept pace with Pillager and Wadena-Deer Creek atop the Park Region Conference with a 63-49 win over Menahga on Thursday night. 

The three teams are all 4-1 in the conference and lead Henning and Verndale by one game as both of those teams are 3-2 in the PRC.

In their game against the Braves, the Eagles jumped out to a solid 32-21 lead thanks to a tough full court press that gave the Braves fits early on. NY Mills jumped out to a 25-2 lead to start the game, before the Braves began to crawl back into the game later on. NY Mills led by a score of 32-21 at halftime. 

“We came out full court and had them in a 25-2 hole, but we allowed them back into the game,” said Head Coach Jason Boe. “We’re still not where we need to be in terms of conditioning and game shape. That will help us in all phases of our game.”

Five Eagles reached double figures in the win with Tate Olson leading the way with 14 points. 

Olson came just 3 assists short of recording a triple-double as the scored 14 points and pulled down 12 rebounds. He also finished the game with 7 assists. Noah Noffsinger scored 14 points, 5 rebounds and 2 assists; while Jonah Johnson scored 12 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists; Derin Gaudette scored 10 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists and Breck Hensch also reached double figures with 10 points, 6 rebounds and 3 steals. Also scoring for the Eagles was Isaiah Laudenbach with 3 points and 5 rebounds. 

This week the Eagles, who are 5-2 on the season and 4-1 in the conference, will host Pillager on Tuesday and Henning on Friday. 

The Eagles have not played the Huskies, who are 6-2 overall and 4-1 in the conference, yet this season. NY Mills defeated Henning (5-2 overall and 3-2 in the conference) by a score of 77-52 in the opening game of the season.

The Eagles are averaging 70.1 points per game on offense, while giving up just 57.4 points per game on defense.