Injury Plagued Jacks Fall To Hibbing 65-43

Chris Shevich-NSO Pics by Chris

Click here for the complete game box score

For additional photos click here to view our complete photo gallery

Jan 24, 2011

Wes Vork-NSO

It seems as of late that if it weren’t for bad luck, the Cloquet girls basketball team would have no luck at all. Once again the injury bug bit the already shorthanded Jacks in their 65-43 loss to Hibbing at home on Tuesday night.

Already suffering from the loss of Shania Paulson and Grace Sinisalo, the Lumberjacks lost Krista Schmitz and Amy Campbell to sprained knees for at least a week.

Paulson has missed the past two weeks with a fractured metatarsal bone and will see the doctors on Friday. She is looking to be cleared to play next week. Sinisalo sprained her thumb and wrist just a minute into the January 19 game against Duluth Denfeld and hopes to be back for the Grand Rapids game on Feb 10.

After starting the season 0-5 against some stiff competition, the Jacks had been on a roll and won 6 of their last 9 games before the rash of injuries hit. Cloquet Head Coach Jeff Ojanen is hoping to get everyone back and health for a good end of the season run. “If news come back good from the knee injuries, we are expecting everyone to be back the week of Feb. 6th and all ready to come back for the Grand Rapids game on the 10th” explained Ojanen.

On Tuesday Cloquet fell behind early and ended up in a 24-13 hole at halftime. The Jacks did find a bit of a scoring punch and came up with 30 second half points but the early deficit proved too much as the Lumberjacks fell by the final 65-43 score.

Leading the way for the Jacks was the inside-outside game of Avery Bieri and Schmitz before she injured her knee. Both players finished with 13 points on the night with Schmitz adding four assists and Bieri pulling down nine rebounds.

Others scoring for Cloquet were Kenzie Rathe with five points, Jordan Hanson with four, Carri Zeadow and Reilly Kedrowski each added three, and Amy Campbell finished the Cloquet scoring with two points.

Things don’t get any easier for the Jacks when they take on Lake Superior Conference foe Hermantown on Thursday and rival Esko on Monday with both games on the road.

Wes Vork can be reached at wes@northlandsportsonline.com