Johnson-Bushey Lead Jacks to Victory

Photos by: Shelley Robideaux

Dwight Cadwell-NSO

Dillon Johnson and Jake Bushey provided the offense Friday night as the Hibbing Bluejackets shut down senior center Adam Laine as the Lumberjacks rolled to the 52-33 win in the section 7AAA quarterfinals in Cloquet.

Hibbing used a diamond and one and shadowed Laine all game long, so with Laine tied up it was Johnson and Bushey picking up the scoring slack as the Lumberjacks moved into the section semi-finals Tuesday night versus North Branch.

After a slow moving tight contest in the first several minutes of the first half mason Brenner connected with two 3-pointers to give the Lumberjacks and 15-5 lead as they never looked back Friday night.

“The kids at halftime we like wow we only scored 22 points,” head coach Steve Battaglia told NSO, “but I said hey, look at your defense we held them to nine points.”

Johnson scored 15 points and Bushey added 13 in the win and Laine would be held scoreless till midway through the second had finished with 6 on the night. Mason Brenner and Gavin Takkunen each added 7 for Cloquet and Nate Weets added 4 as Cloquet improves to 22-5.

Dylan Takkunen scored 9 points in the loss to lead the Bluejackets, while Tyler Jerkovich finished with 8 points in the loss. Hibbing finishes the season with an overall record of 8-18.

Hibbing — Dylan Takkunen 9, Tyler Jerkovich 8, Colin Kemp 5, Andy Rudberg 4, Andy Kolden 4, Travis Carruth 2, Evan Kleffman 1. Totals 14 3-12 33.

3-point goals — Kemp, Takkunen.

Cloquet — Dillon Johnson 15, Jake Bushey 13, Mason Brenner 7, Gavin Takkunen 7, Adam Laine 6, Nate Weets 4. Totals 21 6-9 52.

3-point goals — Brenner 2, Johnson, Takkunen.

 Dwight Cadwell can be reached at Dwight@northlandsportsonline.com