Hayfield beats Blossoms, 80-49

The Blooming Prairie boys basketball team lost its last game before the holiday break, 80-49, against Hayfield.
The Awesome Blossoms totaled 22 points in the first half and an additional 27 points in the second half but fell short against a Hayfield team that put up 40 or more points in both halves.
“I thought at times we really competed with Hayfield tonight. I was telling them, Hayfield is one of the best Class A teams in the state, and we kept on battling back and forth with them. It was about a 10-point game there for a while, so the fact that we were just competing with those guys – especially after coming off of a 50-point loss to Plainview – that was something that I thought we did well,” said Blooming Prairie head coach Cameron Rutledge.
According to Rutledge, the Awesome Blossoms tried to utilize the team’s height advantage over the Vikings by exploiting certain matchups on the court.
“Obviously if we can get the ball to Drew [Kittelson], that’s kind of what we’re going to be able to do. We felt that we had the size advantage today especially. Guys like Colin Jordison too, we noticed that he had a smaller matchup on him as well, so we tried to pound the ball in the post with him too,” said Rutledge.
Kittelson finished the game with 19 points, while Jordison finished with 12. The two players accounted for 31 of the team’s 49 points.
While perimeter shooting was not a major focus for the team, Rutledge also said that sophomore forward Zack Hein impressed him with his three-point shooting.
Hein finished with eight points and two successful three-point attempts, both of which came in spots where Rutledge said points were crucial.
Containing the Vikings defensively is where Rutledge said that the team ran into issues.
“As far as what we need to get better at: transition defense. Every time they got a defensive rebound they were going into transition, and we couldn’t get back fast enough. That’s something we need to work on.”
Hayfield benefited from four different double-digit point performances, with Isaac Matti – who scored his 1,000th point in the game against the Blossoms – finishing with a team-high 32 points.
Up next for the Blossoms is a home matchup against Lyle-Pacelli on Tuesday, Jan. 4 at 7:15 p.m.