The Cloquet Lumberjacks finally turned things around Tuesday with a 53-52 win over Duluth Marshall. The 15-point effort of Ryan Erkkila, 13 points of Peter LaCourse and 12 points from Justin Schmitz led the charge.
The Jacks held an 11-point lead at halftime, 31-20. However, the Hilltoppers scrapped back in the second half to nearly pull out the win.
Cory Koning added nine points for the Jacks and both Bryan Anderson and Ryan Lindstrom added two points for Cloquet.
Doug Frey, with 19 points, led the Hilltoppers.The Cloquet boys basketball team saw a four-point halftime lead evaporate as they fell 46-45 to the Ashland Oredockers Friday night.
"We are pretty disappointed with our play right now," said Cloquet coach Steve Battaglia. "Our defensive efforts have been OK, but our offensive game is lagging way behind."
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The Jacks opened with a loss early last week to Grand Rapids and then led Ashland 23-19 at halftime, only to fall by a point in the end.
"We shot 29 percent against Grand Rapids and 33 percent against Ashland and that won't win you many games," commented Battaglia. "We're having a tough time getting anything to fall, we're missing uncontested layups and our free-throw shooting is well below 50 percent right now."
Ryan Erkkila led the scoring with 17 points and Cory Koning added a dozen. Justin Schmitz added seven points while Bryan Anderson scored four, Ryan Lindstrom had three and Dennis Conklin added a pair of points.
"We talk all the time about making the bunnies and the free throws," stated Battaglia. "Those are two simple things that will win you a lot of games. Additionally, we are turning the ball over way too much and we've had a lot of unforced turnovers that are costing us possessions."
Cloquet went 12-for-30 from the free-throw line and even an average night from the charity stripe would have helped secure the win.
"A few bright spots have been that we've out-rebounded both of our opponents and more than doubled the number of free throws our opponents have shot," mentioned Battaglia. "Now we only have to make a few of those. We're in an early season funk and we're just going to have to work to get out of it."
Luke Magnuson led Ashland with 16 points and was the only player from the Oredockers in double-digit scoring.
