Cloquet Boys Fall In Opening Round of Wood City Classic

Wes Vork-NSO

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Dec 28

Dwight Cadwell-NSO

The Cloquet Lumberjacks saw an eight point lead with over thirteen minutes left in the second half disappear as the Eagles of East Central defeated the Lumberjacks in the first day of the 2010 Wood City Classic by a final score of 65-50.

The Lumberjacks built up an early first half lead and went into the locker room at the break with seven point, 30-23 lead. Cloquet extended the lead early in the second half to 37-29. But soon after, the wheels fell off as the Eagles went on a 36-13 run to close out the game and come away with the big non-conference win at the Cloquet Middle School.

Cloquet, which shot 42% in the first half could only connect on 7-23 shots in the second half as the Lumberjacks saw East Central shoot the daylights out of the ball in the second half. The Eagles shot a blistering 14-25 in the second half, a shooting percentage of 56%. The Eagles also shot 13-21 from the free throw line as the go on to the fifteen point win.

Leading the Lumberjacks in scoring Tuesday night was Zach Peterson, who had 15 points including three first half 3-pointers for Cloquet. Andy Wappes followed with 10 points; he also contributed with a game high twelve rebounds on the night. Maxx Brenner had 8 points, Karl Palmquist finished with 6, Cody Stevens & Dane Kiehn each had 4 points, and rounding out the Lumberjack scoring was Sean Ferrell with 3.

Kevin Klocke scored 17 points in the Eagles win. Tom Battaglia added 14 for East Central. The Eagles Head Coach is Cloquet Boys Head Coach Steve Battaglia’s uncle Dan Battaglia. Dan is also the brother of Cloquet assistant coach Dave Battaglia, the former boys and girls assistant coach for Cloquet as well as Carlton Girls head coach in seasons past.

Cloquet falls to 1-5 overall on the season. They will face the Blake Bears on Wednesday at 7:00 pm in the final game of the 2010 Wood City Classic Tournament. Blake lost on Tuesday to Esko by one point. The Eagles improve to 5-1 on the season and they will face Esko at 3:00 pm.

Dwight Cadwell can be reached at dwight@northlandsportsonline.com