Cloquet Boys Lose The Battle of the Lumberjacks

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Jan 27

Dwight Cadwell-NSO

The Bemidji Lumberjacks won the battle of the Lumberjacks on Thursday night in Cloquet with Bemidji taking care of Cloquet by a final score of 89-50. Cloquet, winners of three of their last four games were battling from behind almost all game as they fall by thirty nine points.

Cloquet jumped out in front Thursday as Andy Wappes and Dane Kiehn each scored for the early lead, but from then on it was Bemidji coming back and taking the lead and building up a ten point halftime lead at 49-39.

The second half saw Bemidji add to their lead while Cloquet struggled to get their offense going again, they were held to only eleven second half points. Bemidji was also assisted Thursday night by thirty Cloquet turnovers which led to 45 points on the night for Bemidji.

Bemidji also led Cloquet in points scored in the paint outscoring Cloquet 45-12, so with the inside game working well and the turnovers it was a fairly comfortable win for Bemidji. Bemidji out rebounded Cloquet 31-20 and they had 12 steals on the night compared to only 4 for Cloquet.

The Lumberjacks did have senior forward Andy Wappes back in the lineup Thursday. Wappes had missed last Fridays game with Mesabi East, and in Tuesday’s game against Proctor he played sparingly. Wappes led Cloquet in scoring with 15 points on the night, Dillon Johnson added 11, including three three-pointers, Zach Peterson finished with 9, Dane Kiehn added 8, Sean Ferrell added 4, and Cody Stevens ended the Cloquet scoring with 3 points.

Bemidji had four players in double figures including Carey Woods who finished with a game high 28 on the night, Ryan Rude, and Cody Rutledge each had 16, and Mitch Brown added 10 points in the win. Bemidji improves to 14-1 on the season and they will play at Moorhead next Thursday night.

Cloquet falls to 4-10 on the season and they will be in action again on Tuesday night when they will host the Moose Lake-Willow River Rebels in a non-conference match-up. Then on Thursday they host the Duluth East Greyhounds.

Dwight Cadwell can be reached at dwight@northlandsportsonline.com