Jacks Win Homecoming Game 74-39

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Feb 19

Dwight Cadwell-NSO

CLOQUET – The Duluth Central Trojans ran into a buzz saw Friday when the Cloquet Lumberjacks came out from the opening tip and never looked back. Cloquet ran away with this Lake Superior Conference contest and Section 7AAA matchup with a dominating 74-39 performance Friday night. The win was extra special as it was homecoming in Cloquet.

Cloquet opened up in the first half taking advantage of their size and quickness. RaRa Jones scored eight of Cloquet’s first ten points, including a thunderous dunk which brought the near capacity crowd to their feet. The Lumberjacks continued to execute to near perfection, ending up with a 40-16 half time lead.

“We have been playing really well as of late,” head coach Steve Battaglia told Northland Sports Online. “It started with a great game against Superior last week in which we played very well.” Cloquet also played well in a huge win over Esko on Tuesday night. The fact that Cloquet appears to be clicking on all cylinders could mean good things with the section playoffs only two weeks away.

The Lumberjacks continued to roll in the second half Friday, building the lead up to almost 40 points at one point and going on to win by 35 on the night. RaRa Jones and Chad Calcaterra led Cloquet in scoring with 20 points each on the night. Jones also added nine rebounds. Tim Defoe had 17 points, Peter LaCourse and Andy Wappes both ended with 6 points, Karl Palmquist and Julius Scholtes each added 2, and Ben Schulz finished with 1.

Darcell Williams scored a team high of 12 for Duluth Central. Sam Humes added 10 points and Andrew Laughlin finished with 7 points in the loss. The Trojans fall to 8-12 on the season and will be at Duluth East on Tuesday night. The Lumberjacks improve to 15-7 overall and play at North Branch on Tuesday.

Northland Sports Online would like to congratulate the 2010 homecoming candidates, and congratulations to King Kyle Burggraff and Homecoming Queen Kialee Kutter.

Dwight Cadwell can be reached at dwight@northlandsportsonline.com