Lady Jacks Stumble In Second Half Against Superior

Click Here
For Complete Game Stats

Feb 18

Dwight Cadwell-NSO

The Cloquet Lumberjacks have had problems putting two complete halves of basketball together this season. Thursday night it happened again, causing the Superior Spartans to come from behind and beat Cloquet 52-48 in this Lake Superior Conference contest. The Lumberjacks led at halftime 30-22, but did not endure as Cloquet lost by four points.

“It’s tough when we can’t put two halves together,” head coach Jeff Ojanen told Northland Sports Online. “Several times this season we have had leads but we just couldn’t put a complete game together. We need to step up and get this straightened out as the playoffs are fast approaching.” Ojanen went on to say, “It was a hard loss for us as a team, but we need to put it behind us and focus on the Hibbing game this Saturday.”

The Lumberjacks and Superior were even in rebounding Thursday night as both teams had 32 for the night. Statistically, both teams were very close in every category, but one big factor was Cloquet turning the ball over 14 times in the second half. This was ultimately the difference in the game.

Katie Pappas led the Lumberjacks in scoring Thursday night as she finished with 17 points, Annabel Morrisroe added 12 points, Brianna Henagin added 9 points, Kialee Kutter scored 5 points, Krista Schmitz and Sarah McMillen both ended with 2 points and Carri Zeadow rounded out the scoring with 1 point.

Betty Jo Nelson led Superior with 12 points on the night, Christa Diedrich and Janelle Strewler both added 8 points, MacKenzie Newman chipped in with 7 points, Ashlee Knight scored 5, Samantha DeMeyer, Raya Kosey, and Mary Amys both finished with 4 points in the win.

The Lumberjacks fall to 9-13 on the season and will be in action again on Saturday when they play at Hibbing.

Dwight Cadwell can be reached at dwight@northlandsportsonline.com