Cloquet boys seek consistency by playoffs

Finding wins has been a bit tough for the Cloquet boys basketball team. The 'Jacks have managed just one win in their last four outings, which includes Tuesday night's 78-69 loss to Chisago Lakes in Cloquet.

In a span of 12 days, the 'Jacks lost by 17 points to Hermantown, beat Virginia by 14 points, and then dropped a 72-59 decision to Crosby-Ironton prior to Tuesday night's loss, putting the team's record at 7-9.

"Hermantown is pretty good," Cloquet coach Steve Battaglia said. "Offense is easy for them and we didn't do much to make it tough to score in the first half. I liked how we responded and we beat them in the second half. Our guys played well against Virginia and played a complete game and against Crosby-Ironton were bad from tip to horn and just got outplayed."

One positive for the 'Jacks has been the emergence of Adam Schneider on the offensive end of the floor. Against Crosby-Ironton he hit for 26 points and against Chisago Lakes he led the Lumberjacks with 18 points.

"Adam has asserted himself as a legitimate offensive threat," Battaglia said. "I'm also happy with how Nick Flynn is playing."

Flynn dropped in 15 points against Crosby-Ironton and then added 13 against Chisago Lakes. Markus Pokornowski was also in double-digit scoring versus Chisago Lakes with 16 points, as was Logan Gallup with 14 points.

With the playoffs looming, the 'Jacks are working toward getting strong starts to their games and making the easy shots that have not fallen so far this season.

"We've had terrible first halves in our games and we need to get out of the gates better," Battaglia said. "Our shooting percentages have been dismal and we're missing too many bunnies in the paint. We are barely above 50 percent from the free throw line and we are not hitting timely three-point shots."

Against Chisago Lakes, the Lumberjacks did a better job at the charity stripe by hitting 19 of 26 free throws.

"Defensively we can always be better, but our struggles have to do with our offensive efficiency," Battaglia said. "We just need to keep grinding. We're not off by much and we can compete with anybody we play, but our margin for error is pretty thin. We need to find consistent scorers."

Playoffs are a little over a month away and that means the Lumberjacks need to find a way to put together a string of wins, Battaglia said.

"There is very little difference between the bottom six teams in our section," he said. "Princeton is by far the best team with Hermantown hanging around as a dangerous No. 2 seed. The rest of us can all beat each other. We're just trying to figure out some things so we can try to put together a run in March."