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
SECTION 7AAA BOYS BASKETBALL
Cloquet's Adam Schneider makes a drive to the basket against Princeton's Jon Stimmler during Friday night's semifinal game in Duluth. Cloquet's season ended with a 88-70 loss.
Cloquet coach Steve Battaglia eyes the clock as he gives last-minute instructions to players during the final time-out of Friday night's game against Princeton.
Cloquet's Alec Turnbull makes a drive to the basket for a shot against Princeton during Friday night's game in Duluth.
When the Cloquet boys basketball team met Princeton Friday night at Duluth East High School, the players knew they would have their hands full. The Tigers came into the Section 7AAA semifinal game sporting a gaudy 24-3 record, plus they had beaten the 'Jacks by 30 points in mid-December. While Cloquet played a much stronger game this time, they still didn't have enough to get past the talented Tigers and fell by a score of 88-70 - sending Princeton on to the section title match and ending Cloquet's season.
"Princeton just has so many weapons that you can't contain them all," said Cloquet coach Steve Battaglia. "You just have to hope they don't shoot well."
Reilly O'Neill led the Tigers with 25 points and John Stimmler added 20 points for a strong one-two punch for Princeton.
"We controlled (James) Flicek and (Adam) Williams for the most part, but then O'Neill got loose," Battaglia said. "Stimmler is just a big horse and we couldn't match up against him."
Williams added 14 points and Flicek had 11. Both scorers were less effective Friday than the first time the two teams met on Dec. 14, but the Tigers still put up 88 points.
"They just dictated the pace," Battaglia said. "We also scored 70 points, which is more than usual for us. We just didn't control the pace of the game as we had hoped."
Cloquet's Adam Schneider led all scorers with 28 points. Markus Pokornowski finished with 14 and Riley Leslie was also in double-digit scoring with 13 points. Dylan Heehn added five points, plus Alec Turnbull had four, while Alec Leuzzo and Nick Flynn each finished with three points.
The Lumberjacks wrapped up their season with a 14-14 record despite returning only one starter to this year's team after losing 12 seniors last year.
"I told our kids after the game that they exceeded expectations," Battaglia said. "We had one returning player and to end up 14-14, and we hosted a playoff game, made me very proud of how our kids battled all season."
Cloquet will lose three players to graduation: Leuzzo, Flynn and Leslie.
"Leuzzo is a great kid and great student and always seemed to play better on the big stage," Battaglia said. "Leslie is a great kid and student and was a great leader for us. He really played well down the stretch and without his late season play we don't end up with a home quarterfinal game. Flynn had a very good season for us and has an infectious personality. Nick Flynn was a great leader for us."
With the win, the Tigers moved on to play Hibbing for the Section 7AAA title Thursday at Duluth East.
