Carlton Boys Retain Brown Jug With 50-38 Win Over Wrenshall

Wes Vork-NSO

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Dec 2, 2011

Wes Vork-NSO

When Adam Bailey played sports at Carlton High School he was a no-nonsense type of guy who made his mark with hard work and effort. Using the same attributes he coached his Bulldog boys basketball team to their first win of the season on Friday night; a 50-38 victory over neighborhood rival Wrenshall in a battle for the little brown jug.

“It’s always nice to start with a win but we have a lot we have to shore up, we let them back in the game two or three times” Commented Carlton Head Basketball Coach Adam Bailey after the win. “But I’m proud of the boys, they played hard and we’ve only had a week and a half to work on things. We have a lot of work to do but we proved we’re going to be competitive this year.”

Layne Empson led the Bulldogs with an 18-point effort, while the Wrens got a big effort from Pat Gustafson who finished with 22 points.

Carlton jumped out to leads of 7-2 and 14-4, before settling for a 24-15 edge at the half. After trading a few baskets to start the second half, the Wrens applied defensive pressure via the press, which created problems for the Bulldogs. Wrenshall capitalized on the brief momentum switch and cut the lead to three at 35-32 with 9:44 to play in the game.

At that point, with the lead cut to three, even a coach in his first ever varsity game knows it’s a pretty good spot for a time-out. Unlike a rookie coach however, Bailey was able to communicate to his troops and get things settled down during the time-out. When they returned to the floor, the Bulldogs went on a 9-0 run to build the lead back to 12 points at 44-32 and basically put the game out of reach and finish up for the 50-38 win.

“Coach said to get it together, slow up the offense and it will get going, which worked well” mentioned Eric Adams; who joined Empson in double digit scoring with 12 points for the Bulldogs. “I think overall we played really good defense and got after the boards, we also shot well from the perimeter as a team,” Added Adams.

With the win Carlton retains possession of the little brown jug. Wrenshall had held the 60 yr old traveling trophy for five straight years before the Bulldogs brought it back to Carlton last season. “I told my guys the process will take care of the product. We can only control ourselves and the little things that we can do. Don’t worry about the brown jug, but about the game. The brown jug will take care of itself, (the jug) means something but the game means more.” Coach Bailey explained after the game.

“It was the first game without our point guard from last year (Brett Johnson) and we just never got in sync on offense at all. We had chances in the second half, we had a window of opportunity and we shut it ourselves, but that #13 (Lane Empson) came up big for them, he did a nice job” Mentioned Wrenshall Head Coach Joel Swanson following the game, adding. “It’s early in the season and we have more potential than we showed tonight.”

Kyle Gunderson added eight for Carlton, while Dakota Frear scored six points and Spencer Walton finished with four points. Also scoring for the Wrens were; Jack Dolter with nine, Pete Granholm finished with four; Matt O’Connor with two and and Derek Duncan added a point.

Carlton will be back in action next Friday when they travel to Two Harbors. Wrenshall will be off until Monday Dec 12 when they travel to Cromwell. The Wrens will not have their home opener until halfway through December when they host South Ridge on Dec 15.

Wes Vork can be reached at wes@northlandsportsonline.com