By Chad Koenen

Publisher

New York Mills held Pillager to just 17 points in the second half as the Eagles came away with a 56-48 win over Pillager on Thursday night. 

The Eagles trailed 31-28 at the end of the first half, but Bella Bauck scored 12 of her game-high 19 points in the second half to help lift NY Mills over the Huskies in Park Region Conference action. In fact, the Huskies hit just five field goals in the second half as the Eagles hit a pair of 3-pointers and hit 10 free throws to keep Pillager at bay down the stretch. 

In addition to Bauck, Kali Olson and Ayla Olson reached double figures with 14 and 11 points respectively. Moriah Geiser scored 5 points, while Cydnie Polman scored 4 and Megan Riedel rounded out the scoring with 3 points. 

With the win, the Eagles have improved to 6-3 on the season after starting the year with a pair of losses. They will have a tough test this week as they travel to second ranked Henning on Tuesday, before hosting Bertha-Hewitt on Friday night. Earlier this season the Hornets defeated NY Mills by a score of 65-54, while defeating Bertha-Hewitt by  score of 67-17. 

NY Mills is currently 6-3 overall and 5-2 in the conference. The Eagles are in third place in the conference and trail just Henning and Menahga in the standings. They are averaging 57.3 points per game on offense, while giving up just 40.4 points per game on defense. 

Currently the Eagles are ranked 20th in the QRF in Class A and are in third place according to the QRF in the sub section. Henning is ranked third in the QRF and Lake Park-Audubon is 13th, while Underwood is in fourth place and ranked 23rd.