Barnum Boys Back In Win Column

Jan 7

Dwight Cadwell-NSO

WRENSHALL- On Tuesday night the Barnum Bombers played a game in which a lot of folks thought Barnum should have won over Floodwood. When the Polar Bears upset the Bombers, Barnum knew they needed to right the ship fast and they did just that with a 61-26 victory over the Wrens in Wrenshall Friday night.

The Bombers jumped out to an early lead Friday night thanks to a well balanced scoring as the Bombers had seven players finish with seven or more points in the Polar League Conference win. The Bombers defense played outstanding holding the Wrens to only twenty-six points on the night.

“Our defense stepped it up tonight,” Head Coach Richard Newman told Northland Sports Online. “We played so much better than we did Tuesday, the kids worked hard on defense, which is our strength.” Newman also added, “We were very balanced offensively tonight, so was hard for Wrenshall to focus on just one guy.” Newman also stated that “we are a bit deeper than Wrenshall and I think we wore them out in the end.”

The Bombers pressure defense and solid balanced shooting led them to their eighth win of the season, improving to 8-1 overall. The Bombers also improve to 4-1 in conference play. On big factor for Barnum Friday was they made 29 trips to the free throw line compared to only 13 for the Wrens.

Barnum was led in scoring by Justin Newman, who finished with 11 points. Jacob Naslund, Bobby Minkkinen, Luke Chalberg, and Andy Youngren all had 8 points in the win. Danny Warpula and Josh Hogan finished with 7 apiece, while Sam Anderson and Jake Blumer closed out the scoring with 2 points each in the win.

Wrenshall was led by Brett Johnson, who finished with a game high 14 points including three Three-Pointers. Jack Dolter ended with 5, Derek Duncan had 3, Pete Granholm and Mark Malone each finished with 2 points in the loss.

Barnum is in action again on Saturday, they will play as part of a boys and girls double header with New Life Academy. The girls game is at 2:00 pm and the Boys play at 4:00 pm. The Bombers are back in Polar League play next Tuesday when they face the Rebels of Moose Lake-Willow River in Willow River.

The Wrenshall Wrens drop to 0-7 overall on the season, they also fall to 0-5 in conference play. The Wrens will be in action again on Tuesday when the travel to Duluth to face Lakeview Christian Academy.

Dwight Cadwell can be reached at dwight@northlandsportsonline.com