Lady Polar Bears Ground Hawks in Esko Coach’s Classic

Wes Vork-NSO

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December 18

Joe Vork-NSO

The Hermantown girls’ basketball team made the short trip down the road to participate in the Esko Coach’s Classic Friday evening. Unfortunately, the night did not end the way the Hawks envisioned with a 56-37 loss to a tough and athletic Floodwood team.

Hermantown played good first-half defense, holding Floodwood’s high scoring junior duo of Alissa Autio and Maija Rauvola to a combined 9 points. The Hawks led at halftime by a score of 22-18.

The second half, however, Floodwood’s offense came alive with Autio draining a pair of three pointers and going 6-6 from the free throw line. Rauvola also had a near perfect night from the free throw line hitting 8-9.

Hermantown, however, couldn’t find an answer for all of the high powered Floodwood offense in the second half. Four Polar Bears ended the game with scoring in double digits. In addition to Autio’s game high of 17 points, Rauvola finished with 14, Sammy Johnson chipped in 12 points and Brea Durovec added 10 points.

Hermantown was paced by Mary Neumann and Rachael Hoium, who each added 10 points on the night. In the end, though, an unanswered 19 point run by Floodwood was the undoing of what appeared to be a promising night for Hermantown.

With the loss, Hermantown is now 5-2 on the season and will face Nashwauk-Keewatin Saturday evening at 6:00 pm in the consolation round of the Esko Coach’s Classic.

Joe Vork can be reached at joe@northlandsportsonline.com