Wappes Leads Lumberjacks Over Esko

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Feb 16

Dwight Cadwell-NSO

The Cloquet Lumberjacks usually have a really consistent 1-2-3 scoring punch with Calcaterra, Jones, and Defoe leading the way. However, Tuesday night it was junior forward Andy Wappes scoring a season high of 26 points for Cloquet in a 65-53 win over Esko.

Wappes picked up the scoring from the start, putting in Cloquet’s first ten points of the game and finishing the first half with 16 points. Cloquet led at the break 30-28. The Lumberjacks, trailing early 10-5, went on a 10-0 run and never trailed again as they pick up the win in this non-conference rivalry.

Esko continued to battle back, tying the game in the second half, but in the end it was too much. Cloquet continued to pound away and lead most of the second half by 10 points or more. Wappes continued to score in the second half, dumping in 10 more points in the second half for that game high of 26. Zach Zezulka hit six free throws down the stretch to ensure a Lumberjack win.

Following Wappes in scoring was Chad Calcaterra with 15 points, Tim Defoe added 14, Zezulka ended with 6 points, and rounding out the scoring was Peter LaCourse with 4. Esko was led by Adam Eskuri who finished with 15, Jake Stainbrook and Jackson Lindquist added 13 points, Cody Townsend had 6, Andrew Wendland, Sam Nigon, and Adam Ryan all finished with 2 points in the loss.

The Lumberjacks improve to 14-7 on the season and are in action again Friday night when they host the Duluth Central Trojans in the Cloquet homecoming game. Esko fall to 13-7 overall on the season and host Cook County on Friday.

Dwight Cadwell can be reached at dwight@northlandsportsonline.com