Cloquet Boys Topple Mesabi East 75-65

Jan 21

Dwight Cadwell-NSO

The Cloquet Lumberjacks were playing shorthanded Friday night with senior forward Andy Wappes out nursing an injury. So without his senior experience and leadership the rest of the Lumberjacks stepped up and defeated the Mesabi East Giants by a score of 75-65 Friday night in Aurora.

The Giants jumped out in front to start the game as they led 4-2. Dane Kiehn tied the score at 4-4, and it was Dillon Johnson hitting the first of his three three-pointers that put Cloquet ahead at 7-4 and they would never trail or let the game be tied again. The Lumberjacks went on to win the game by ten on the road.

The Lumberjacks led by twelve points 34-22 at halftime, and built up a lead as high as 23 points late in the game. The Giants made a late run to cut into that big lead but the outcome by then had already been establish with Cloquet dominating the inside game, outscoring the Giants 33-13 in the paint.

Cloquet was led in scoring Friday night by Adam Laine who scored 18 points for Cloquet. Johnson and Zach Peterson each ended with 13, Kiehn added 11, Sean Ferrell chipped in with 7, Trent Moe and Cody Stevens each had 5, and Maxx Brenner rounded out the scoring with 3 points. Garrett Larson led all scorers with 22 points in the loss for Mesabi East.

The Lumberjacks improve to 3-9 overall on the season and they are looking to make it two wins in a row Tuesday night when they host the Proctor Rails at Cloquet High School. The lumberjacks defeated the Rails earlier this season in Proctor by a score of 63-47. The Giants fall to 5-8 overall and they will host Eveleth-Gilbert on Monday night.

Dwight Cadwell can be reached at dwight@northlandsportsonline.com