Hermantown Girls Win In Cloquet

Dan Saletel-NSO

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December 22

Joe Vork-NSO

CLOQUET – The Cloquet Lumberjacks and Hermantown Hawks exchangedleads throughout the first half and were tied at halftime with 30 points apiece. However, the Hawks outscored the Lumberjacks 32-16 in the second half to secure a 62-46 victory.

Cloquet was paced in the first half by senior guard Brianna Hennagin, who exploded for 13 first-half points. Hennagin’s high energy also propelled team mate Annabel Morrisroe to pour in 10 points of her own. Both teams shot well from the floor in the first half with Hermantown going 10-23, while Cloquet was 14-28. Hermantown held the edge in the free throw department, converting 9 of 11 attempts, with Cloquet only making 1 of 3 attempts.

The second half, however, was controlled by the pressure defense of Hermantown, who made the most of Cloquet’s miscues, scoring 27 points off of turnovers.

Cloquet coach Jeff Ojanen told NSO, “Hermantown took some things away in the second half and made some big three pointers.” In addition to taking away Cloquet’s scoring threats of Henagin and Morrisroe, the Hawks offense came to life by scoring from inside the paint and beyond the three point line.

The Hawks’ Andrea Enockson gave her team the lead for good when she drained one of her team’s four second-half three pointers. Hermantown’s Jessica Love, who was held to four first-half points, also came up big in the second half scoring 12 of her 16 points to pace the Hermantown offense.

Cloquet coach Jeff Ojanen was pleased with the effort of his squad, telling NSO, “The girls played real hard tonight. We will continue to improve and get better. The girls just need to stay positive and they will get over the hump and win these games as the season goes on.”

Cloquet was led offensively by Brianna Hennagin, who led all scorers with 17 point, while grabbing 10 rebounds. Annabel Morrisroe was also in double figures with 15 points. Rounding out the scoring was Krista Schmitz with 6 points, Clair Rosen added 4 points and Sarah McMillen chipped in two points, while Kialee Kutter and Katie Pappas each added a point.

The Hawks had three players in double figures: Jessica Love who had 16, Mary Neumann with 13, and Nicole Niemi added 12 points. Also scoring for the Hawks were Andrea Enockson 7, Carmen Bergstedt 6, Lydia McMillan 4, Rachael Hoium and Melissa Madison each with 2 points.

Hermantown improves to 6-3 on the season, while Cloquet drops to 1-5. Cloquet will be in action after Christmas when they host the Wood City Classic on December 29 and 30th. The Hawks will take a holiday break before returning to action on January 5th when they travel to Duluth East for a 7:30pm game.

Joe Vork can be reached at joe@northlandsportsonline.com