Eli Reinbold looks for an open teammate in the lane during the second half of Saturday’s game in Henning. Reinbold scored 10 points in Henning’s 74-48 win.

By Chad Koenen

Publisher

The fourth ranked Henning Hornets opened their season with a 74-48 win over Lake Park-Audubon on Saturday afternoon. In a game that was closer than the final score may have indicated, at least in the first half, the Hornets shot an impressive 52 percent from the field and went 10-19 from behind the 3-point line to come away with the non-conference win. 

Dawson Bushman defends a Lake Park-Audubon player near the 3-point line last week.

“Always good to get that first win. We struggled early to find some flow, but made a nice run to close the first half. LPA has some nice athletes so we really had to dig in and defend,” said head coach Randy Misegades.

The Hornets took a 41-28 lead at halftime, before continuing to take advantage of a balanced scoring attack throughout the second half. Four Hornets reached double figures in the game with Logan Kostelecky leading the way with 20 points off of just 7-12 shooting from the field. He also grabbed 13 rebounds and finished with four assists. 

Dawson Misegades drives to the basket during Saturday’s game against the Raiders.

“We showed good scoring balance and controlled the glass. We need to do a better job taking care of the basketball on the offensive end of the floor,” said Misegades. 

In addition to Kostelecky, the Hornets were led offensively by Teigan Bjerke with 19 points on just 9-15 shooting. He also finished with nine rebounds and had three assists. Noah Umland scored 15 points, while Eli Reinbold joined the trio in double figures with 10 points and a team-high five assists. 

Photo by Chad Koenen
Noah Umland drives to the basket during Saturday’s regular season opener. The Henning senior scored 15 points in Henning’s win over Lake Park-Audubon.

Ryan Despard scored five points, Dawson Bushman scored three and Dawson Misegades rounded out the scoring with two points.

Misegades said the Hornets will continue to fill a void left by junior Kale Misegades who had ankle surgery last week. The team is hopeful he will return later in the season, but until that time the Hornets will need to find ways to fill in the gaps left by one of their leading scorers. 

“We’re going to be without Kale Misegades for a significant length of time due to ankle surgery on Wednesday. We are cautiously optimistic that Kale will be on the floor later in the season. But, in the meantime, our other guys will need to continue battling and pick up the slack. We feel like they are more than capable of getting the job done,” said Misegades. 

The Hornets will travel to Bertha-Hewitt on Thursday in their Park Region Conference opener in their lone action of the week.