Cloquet Girls Open The Season With A Win

Wes Vork-NSO

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Nov 30

Dwight Cadwell-NSO

CLOQUET- When the Cloquet Lumberjacks season ended last year head coach Jeff Ojanen was already looking forward to this season and having his all conference center, Annabel Morrisroe be the leader in the paint for Cloquet. But Ojanen found out that he not only had Morrisroe, but he now has sophomore forward Kenzie Rathe, who stepped up strong in her first varsity start. The Lumberjacks rallied from being down 11 with eight and a half minutes remaining to defeat the Tigers of Northwestern 47-41.

Down 38-27 midway through the second half, the Lady Lumberjacks went on a 20-3 scoring run which included a 9-0 run over the last the last two minutes as Cloquet won its first regular season opening game in three years. The Jacks also ended a three game losing streak to the Tigers. The last Cloquet win over Northwestern was in 2006.

“It was a great comeback” Head Coach Jeff Ojanen told Northland Sports Online. “We never quit, we just kept fighting, kept working hard and the girls did it in the end.” Ojanen add “Coach Anderson (assistant coach Heidi Anderson) kept telling the girls there is plenty of time, don’t worry, keep working hard, and that’s just what they did.”

Although the Lumberjacks struggled at times Tuesday night with turnovers, it was the Tigers that were plagued with turnovers down the stretch as Cloquet capitalized and came through with the big non-conference win at home.

Northwestern, who led Cloquet 24-19 at the break, was aided by 19 first half Lumberjack turnovers. The Tigers out-rebounded Cloquet in the first half as well. Poor shooting for the Tigers allowed the Lumberjacks to stay within striking distance at the break.

The Tiger came out strong in the second half and twice built an eleven point lead. Trailing by eleven, the comeback started when Rathe went 1-2 from the free throw line to cut the lead to ten at 38-28. Moments later Sarah McMillen hit a 10 foot jump shot to cut the lead to eight points. A Tiger free throw made the lead nine, but Cloquet scored the next nine points to cut the lead to one, at 39-38.

Ally May put the Tigers up by three with 1:59 remaining but that would be the last lead of the game for the Tigers as Cloquet score the final nine points to come away with the six point win. Rathe put up a shot off a rebound that gave Cloquet a 43-41 lead. Shania Paulson and Rathe each hit two free throws each down the stretch to seal the win.

Rathe led all scorers Tuesday night with 17 points, Morrisroe added 10, McMillen finished with 5, Paulson and Felicia Hraban each had 4 points, Krista Schmitz and Kayla Masessa each had 2, and Avery Bieri rounded out the scoring with 1 point. Kelcee Janigo led the Tigers with 10 points. Cloquet starts the season 1-0 and will play at Duluth East on Thursday night; game time is 7:30pm.

Dwight Cadwell can be reached at dwight@northlandsportsonline.com