Moorhead Park Christian senior forward Kyle Ulstad admitted his team had a few hiccups Tuesday night.
Key word: Few.
The Falcons boys basketball team ran its fast-break offense to near perfection en route to an 88-49 non-conference victory against Hillsboro (N.D.) on Tuesday at the Park Christian High School gym.
"This wasn't even close to flawless," said Ulstad, who finished with 22 points and 10 rebounds. "There is always something to work on. But we can take away some positives from this game."
The Falcons' defensive pressure led to easy baskets on the offensive end early in the first half.
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Park Christian (8-1) raced to a 21-7 advantage, forcing Hillsboro to regroup with an early timeout.
Back-to-back 3-pointers by Burros senior guard Aaron Meyer cut the Falcons lead to 21-13 with 9 minutes, 20 seconds remaining in the first half.
Hillsboro connected on five treys in the first half.
A 6-0 Burros run gave Park Christian a 29-23 lead with 4:04 on the clock.
But the Falcons held off the rally by going inside to Ulstad.
The 6-foot-3 forward had his way in the paint, scoring several easy buckets en route to 12 first-half points.
Meyer had 10 points at the intermission.
Park Christian held a 38-28 halftime advantage.
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"They played with a lot of passion," said Hillsboro coach Elliot Rotvold, whose team dropped to 2-2. "We didn't. Hopefully, we show a little bit better as the year goes on."
Park Christian broke the game open with a 14-2 run to open the second half.
Taking advantage of the Burros' off shooting night, the Falcons needed about four minutes to push the lead to 69-39 with nine minutes remaining in the game.
Both benches were emptied with about five minutes on the clock.
Noah Nash and Bjorn Solberg each finished with 17 points for Park Christian. Jacob Fletcher had 14 and Brent Harmelink 12.
Each of the Falcons' starters scored in double-figures.
"Everything starts with our defense," Ulstad said. "We played great defense. ... Our offense is based on layups and 3s. We went inside early, where we knew we had a height advantage. Once they started to collapse on the inside, we started hitting 3s."
HILLSBORO: Grothmann 5 2-2 13, Horne 4 2-2 10, Meyer 3 3-5 12, Breen 1 0-2 2, Anderson 1 2-5 4, Waters 2 1-2 6, Otto 0 2-2 2. Totals: 16 12-20 49.
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PARK CHRISTIAN: Nash 6 3-4 17, Fletcher 6 2-3 14, Harmelink 6 0-0 12, Solberg 6 3-4 17, Ulstad 8 6-6 22, Berge 1 1-2 4, Eggers 1 0-0 2. Totals: 34 15-19 88.
Halftime: PC 38, H 28. 3-pointers: Grothmann, Meyer 3, Waters, Nash 2, Solberg 2, Berge. Total fouls: H 16, PC 14. Fouled out: Grothmann, Solberg. Rebounds: H 18 (Anderson 4), PC Ulstad 10.
Readers can reach Forum reporter Heath Hotzler at (701) 241-5562. Hotzler's blogs can be found at www.areavoices.com
