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
Barnum' s Janaya Jurek works around Madison Wasche on a drive to the basket.
Moose Lake/Willow River's Tyler Overdahl looks to make a pass around Barnum's Sophia Frank as the Rebels and the Bombers meet Thursday in Moose Lake. The Bombers cruised to a 55-22 win.
Mia Hurst gets a layup as the hustling Bombers dominated Thursday's game in Moose Lake.
The Barnum girls basketball team steamrolled to a huge first-half lead in a Dec. 12 matchup against Moose Lake/Willow River and ended up taking a 55-22 road win in Moose Lake.
"We have some great athletes, and they really got after it in that first half," said Mariah Minkkinen, head coach of the Bombers.
"Getting after it" was almost an understatement, as the Bombers sprinted ahead to a 28-4 lead by halftime.
"We knew Barnum was good, but we didn't expect that," said ML/WR coach Andrew Miller.
Adding to the Rebels' problems in the first half was that sophomore starting forward Piper Nielsen, who does a lot of the heavy lifting in the rebounding department, was hurt and unable to finish the game.
"Piper rolled an ankle in the first three minutes of the game, and that set us back. It took us a while to get things sorted out," Miller said. "We knew what we'd get with Barnum, but they came out and played harder and we took way too long to adjust."
Barnum got big games out of Mia Hurst and Sophia Frank, who had 20 and 18 points, respectively.
"Both of those girls have put in the time and the work, and it is fun to see them do well," said Minkkinen. "We feel lucky that we've got some great shooters, which can make us a hard team to prepare for because we have a lot of kids who can score."
Joining in the double-digit scoring barrage for Barnum was Morghan Korpela, who had 12 points. Rounding out the scoring for the Bombers were Ingrid Lund with 3 points, and Janaya Jurek with 2.
Madison Wasche and Tyler Orvedahl led the Rebels with 6 and 7 points, respectively. Both Brooklyn Wasche and Paige Hammill had 4 points, while Madeline Volk rounded out the scoring with 1 point.
"For our team, it needs to be offense by committee," Miller said. "Our goal is to host a home playoff game, but we have to value the basketball more and we need our shots to start falling."
Both Barnum and Moose Lake/Willow River played games on Monday with Barnum taking a 60-48 win over South Ridge and the Rebels dropping a 58-53 overtime decision to Aitkin.
The Bombers are now 6-1 on the season, while the Rebels are 2-2.
