Proctor Girls Season Ends With Loss To Princeton

Feb 28, 2012

Dwight Cadwell-NSO

The Proctor Rails girls basketball season came to an end Monday night in a Section 7AAA playoff game versus the Princeton Tigers at Princeton High School. The Tigers knocked off the Rails 63-30 as the Rails finish their season Monday night.

The Tigers blew open the game in the first half as they jumped out fast and built up a halftime lead of 34-9. The Rails who were moved to Section 7AAA this season by the State High School League see their classmates from the Proctor Boys Basketball team staying as a Class 7AA team.

Head Coach Aaron Johnson told Northland Sports Online, “Our play-in game against Proctor was a great team victory!” Johnson added “It all started with pretty good defensive pressure that led into offensive transition scoring opportunities early.” Johnson stated “We jumped out on Proctor right away and never really looked back.”

Kayleigh Kloncz and Elizabeth Sharber combined for 35 of the Tigers 63 points Monday night as the two underclassmen took control early and led the Tigers to their sectional victory. The Tigers, who last year played in section 5AAA, are back in Section 7AAA for the first time since 2003.

“Everyone got some good quality section time minutes that will help our entire program going into the next game against the number sixth rated team in the state.” Coach Johnson told NSO. The Tigers will face Chisago Lakes who are currently ranked sixth overall in Class AAA.

Following Kloncz with 20 and Sharber’s 15 points in scoring for the Tigers it was, Danielle Chmielewski who finished with 6 points, Samantha Hanus added 5, Hayley Sandin and Ashley McAlpine both finished with 4 points, Alexcis Funaro had 3, and Princeton also three players who scored two points each in the win.

Micayla Westendorf led the Rails in scoring with 8 points, Bridgett Tesser and Kyra Harty each had 6, Steph Torgerson and Brianna Westendorf each had 5, Kortney Hjerpe finished with 2 points, and it was Kristen Mottenon ended with 1 point.

The Proctor Rails who started the season 2-14, played better down the stretch but end their season with an overall record of 7-20. Season highlights include three conference wins including two over Duluth Marshall and a late season victory over the Cloquet Lumberjacks, the first win over Cloquet in over ten years, which took place on the Jacks home court.

The Tigers improve to 7-20 on the season and they will face the Wildcats of Chisago Lakes on Wednesday night in the quarterfinals of the Section 7AAA playoffs at Chisago Lakes High School. The winner will play in the section semi-finals on Friday night.

Dwight Cadwell can be reached at dwight@northlandsportsonline.com