A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
The Cloquet boys varsity basketball team has just two games left in their regular season, but things are coming together at the right time for the 11-11 team.
It isn't often that a high school basketball team has three players scoring 20 points or more in a game, but that is exactly what happened in Cloquet's 98-60 win over Duluth Marshall Tuesday night. Sophomore Adam Schneider led the 'Jacks scoring barrage with 28 points while both Markus Pokornowski and Nick Flynn had 20 points apiece.
The Lumberjacks raced out to a 48-36 halftime lead and never looked back against the Hilltoppers.
"It was an up-and-down-the-floor type of game and there was not much defense played in the first half," said Cloquet coach Steve Battaglia. "We had seven kids out sick, between the varsity and junior varsity last night. We had more coaches on the bench during the varsity game than we had reserves."
Not only did the Lumberjacks have a trio of 20-point-plus scorers, they also had 13 points from Riley Leslie and a total of nine different players who got into the scoring column.
"Schneider had a big game and played well with 28 points and eight rebounds," Battaglia said. "He can explode and put points up for us."
The second half saw the Lumberjacks tighten up defensively against the 'Toppers by allowing only 24 points and expanding their lead.
"We stopped losing guys in the second half," Battaglia explained. "We were mixing zone and man in the first half and we got sloppy and lost some shooters."
Sam Lohn led the Hilltoppers with a 15-point effort and in doing so passed the 1,000-point threshold for his career.
The Lumberjacks made seven 3-pointers in the game.
"We were seven of 13 from three-point range," Battaglia said. "Any coach would take 54 percent from that range if you can get it."
Also scoring for Cloquet were Alec Turnbull and Damien Diver, who both had five points, Tyler Issendorf with three points, and Kade Clemens and Nate Blatchford, who each recorded two points in the win.
"We are playing well right now," Battaglia said. "We've been up and down during the season, but hopefully we can stay on the upswing for the playoffs."
The victory evened Cloquet's record to 11-11 on the season with just two games remaining on the regular season schedule.
