Double 'W' | Cloquet beats neighboring schools with strong finish

A week ago, the Cloquet Lumberjack boys basketball team was trying to figure out how to close out games in the second half. This week the 'Jacks rode a pair of strong second halves in victories over Esko and Moose Lake-Willow River.

On Monday night the Lumberjacks trailed Esko by four points at halftime and then managed to find a way to slip by the strong Eskomos by outscoring them by six points in the second half - giving Cloquet a 63-61 win at home.

"We played pretty well. It was a good win for us," said Cloquet coach Steve Battaglia. "It was a back-and-forth battle most of the second half. We had to get out of our man-to-man in the second half because we couldn't control their dribblers. We were stuck between trying to help and giving up rhythm threes to good shooters, or not helping and getting beat to the basket."

After making the defensive adjustment, the Lumberjacks went into a 2-3 zone which kept them close in the second half and caused just enough issues for Esko to allow Cloquet to get the win.

"Our kids played a nice 2-3 zone and disrupted their offensive flow a little bit in the second half," Battaglia said. "Our kids played hard."

Both Trevor Spindler and Payton Wefel caused all kinds of problems for Cloquet as both Eskomos recorded 19 points in the win. Meanwhile, Jon Stodola also was in double figures with 11 points, and Riley Fischer added six; Sam Rengo, Eli Blue and Hubie Gonsorowski each had a pair of points in the loss.

Cloquet had big nights from Adam Schneider with 18 points, Nick Flynn with 17 points and Alex Leuzzo with 14 points. Riley Leslie finished with nine points, Alec Turnbull had three and Markus Pokornowski added two points.

Last Thursday the Lumberjacks held a slim three-point edge over Moose Lake-Willow River after the first half, but then outscored the Rebels by 15 points during the second half in cruising to a 77-59 victory.

"We played pretty well throughout most of the game, but we did a better job of helping out on their big guy (Adam Dragicevich) in the second half," Battaglia said. "We were able to limit their ability to lob it over our defender who was fronting on the ball side."

Dragicevich and Brady Watrin both finished with a team-best 15 points for the Rebels while Mason Olson chipped in with 13 points.

"Moose Lake-Willow River has good offensive balance," Battaglia said. "They have the big guy and a couple of nice shooters. They presented a good mix of paint and perimeter scoring."

Also scoring for the Rebels were Logan Orvedahl with six points, Ben Dewey with four and Phillip Sheetz and Michael Olson each adding three points to the box score.

On the Cloquet side, Nick Flynn scored 30 points to lead all scorers in the game.

"Nick has been playing pretty well for us and he put two nice halves together," Battaglia said. "He is capable of scoring like this more regularly and I think his confidence is starting to match his ability."

Alex Leuzzo also had a nice night with 17 points as did Adam Schneider with 13. Alex Turnbull chipped in with seven. Markus Pokornowski and Riley Leslie had four each and Logan Gallup finished with two points.

Perhaps the biggest key to the game was Cloquet's ability to get to the free throw line. The Lumberjacks went 15-for-24 from the line and ML-WR was 6-for-11.

"Getting to the line was a big key for us," Battaglia said. "It is always great to make free throws, but I tend to look to see how many we are attempting. If we're getting to the line, we're attacking the basket and playing aggressive basketball."

The two wins improved Cloquet's record to 9-10 on the season.