Esko Hangs On For Win Over Barnum, Closes In On Polar League Title

Wes Vork-NSO

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Feb 17, 2012

Dwight Cadwell-NSO

ESKO- All season long the Esko Eskomos have lived and thrived off the long range shooting of its team and Friday night was no exception as the host Eskomos held on to defeat the Bombers. They are one win away from capturing the 2010-2011 Polar League Championship after Friday night’s win over rival Barnum by a score of 70-65.

From the opening tip it was the Eskomos firing long range, led by senior guard Jackson Lindquist who hit six 3-pointers in the first half to lead all scorers at the break with 23 points. Esko had built up a 22-10 lead at one point and the Bombers battled back to cut the lead to three on a few occasions in the first half. But with 10 first half 3-pointers it was too much to overcome, as Esko held a 41-31 lead the break.

In the second half however, it was going to be the Barnum Bombers coming out with fire and vigor as they immediately cut into that 10 point Esko lead. At 10:23 of the second half the Bombers took their only lead of the game at 45-44 when Rodney Mullen Jr. connected on a 3-pointer.

The Bombers and the Eskomos battled from that point on, trading basket for basket with the game being tied on a few occasions but never the led got to be more than six points. Kory Deadrick picked up the scoring load in the second half for the Eskomos as he nailed four second half 3-pointers for the Eskomos.

Esko connected on 15 3-pointers in the game while Barnum shot well from long range also, hitting nine 3-pointers on the night. One odd face on the 3-pointers was both teams shot a higher percentage from three point land then they did overall on the night. Going down the stretch Friday night, the Bombers forced to foul, saw the Eskomos connect on their free throws to seal the victory.

Lindquist lead all scorers on the night as he finished with 30 points in the win. Deadrick finished with 20, Marc Peterson and Casey Staniger both closed with 8 points, and it was Jarred Harms and Bobby Wright each finishing with 2 points for the Eskomos.

The Bombers were led by Jacob Naslund and Mullen, who both had 13 points. Danny Warpula added 12, Brandon Newman finished with 11, Bobby Minkkinen added 8, Jaxson Turner ended with 5, and it was Brandon King rounding out the Bombers scoring with 3 points on the night.

The Eskomos improve to 18-4 on the season and they will be in action again on Tuesday when they travel to Proctor to face the Rails and again on next Friday when they go to Cromwell and try to seal up the Polar League title in a conference game against the Cardinals.

The Bombers fall to 17-5 on the season and they will be off until next Friday when they face the Rebels of Moose Lake-Willow River in a conference contest in Willow River and then on Saturday they will host Hinckley-Finlayson in a non-conference game at home.

Dwight Cadwell can be reached at Dwight@northlandsportsonline.com