Jacks Play Strong But Fall To Hibbing

Wes Vork-NSO

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Jan 6

Dwight Cadwell-NSO

CLOQUET- When the Lumberjacks fell behind Thursday night by twenty points in the second half, a lot of people thought Cloquet was finished. But a gritty determined never say die attitude helped the Lumberjacks cut the lead to nine points but in the end Hibbing hung on and defeated the Lumberjacks by a final score of 67-54.

Cloquet started off slow in the first half as Hibbing used pressure defense and forced Cloquet into turnovers which led to easy baskets and a 33-21 halftime lead of twelve points. Hibbing shot an amazing 55% in the first half which led to the big halftime lead.

The Bluejackets came out in the second half and built a twenty point lead at 45-25 with 12:45 remaining in the second half. However, Dillon Johnson sparked a comeback off the Cloquet bench as he scored eight points including two three-pointers as the Lumberjacks cut the lead to nine twice late in the second half.

“We had a lot of chances inside tonight” Head Boys Coach Steve Battaglia told Northland Sports Online. “The ball just wouldn’t fall at times.” Battaglia was referring to several shots in the paint the Cloquet had but couldn’t convert. “The kids did a great job, worked hard and we are getting better game by game.”

Andy Wappes led the Lumberjacks with 18 points on the night. Dane Kiehn finished with 15 points; he also added 14 rebounds for Cloquet. Dillon Johnson had 8 points, Zach Peterson finished with 7, Sean Ferrell had 4, and Cody Stevens closed out the scoring with 2 points in the loss.

Cloquet falls to 1-8 overall on the season and will host the Ashland Oredockers next Tuesday night. Hibbing evens its record at 5-5; they face Eveleth-Gilbert at home Friday night.

Dwight Cadwell can be reached at dwight@northlandsportsonline.com