Hawks end Rapids Reign

Photo by: Joshua Cadwell

Kerry Rodd-NSO

The Hermantown Hawks ended the Grand Rapids strangle hold on the section 7AAA reign over the past six seasons as Hermantown came from behind Tuesday night to take down the Thunderhawks by a score of 53-47.

It will be Cloquet and Hermantown in the Section 7AAA title game on Thursday night in boys basketball.  Tuesday night the Lumberjacks throttled North Branch 66-40 and the Hawks slipped by defending sectional champion Grand Rapids 53-47.

  The championship game will be rematch of last years sectional semifinal double overtime game that saw Cloquet win before losing to the Thunderhawks in the title tilt.

In Hermantown’s victory over the Grand Rapids the Hawks were able to somewhat contain Alex Illikainen the Division 1 college prospect to just 17 points, and 10 of those coming in the first 3 minutes of the second half.

Illikainen and his Thunderhawks did their best to try and pull away early in the second half as they came out to take a 33-24 lead early in the second half in a game that was even at 20-20 at intermission.

The Hawks were able to regain their poise and went on a big roll in the second half by nailing down the game with some long range 3-point shots.

Thomas Madison led the Hawks with 16 points, Chase Hren chipped in with 12, it was Kole Zuidmulder adding nine, both Justin Brendon and Zack Brendon recorded five points, Cade Zacharias added four and it was two points for Alex Vittorio.

The Cloquet vs Hermantown game has been moved from Hibbing to Duluth East on Thursday night and will be played at 7pm.  The game can be heard on WKLK-FM 96.5.

Kerry Rodd can be reached at Kerry@northlandsportsonline.com