Playing without their 6-foot-10-inch center, Chad Calcaterra, the Cloquet Lumberjacks fell to Grand Rapids 57-42 in boys basketball at home on Tuesday night.
Calcaterra was named one of Minnesota's Top 100 Players Tuesday afternoon, but Tuesday evening, he could only watch from the sidelines while nursing an injury. The Jacks played hard, but fell behind 27-22 and then saw the Thunderhawks pull away in the second stanza.
Matt Sjostrand led the Thunderhawks with 17 points, while Eric Stark added 14 and Michael Johnson finished with 11 points.
Cory Koning led the Jacks with 16 points and Ryan Erkkila was also in double digits with 10 points. Also scoring for Cloquet were Paul Cameron with eight, Derek Johnson with three, Dennis Conklin and Bryan Anderson each scored a pair of points, and Ryan Lindstrom added a point.
The Jacks managed to get to the free-throw line 17 times in the game, but connected on only nine of their charity shots. Meanwhile, the Thunderhawks only went to the line three times for the game, but they hit 24 shots from the field compared to just 16 for the Jacks. However, the biggest difference maker in the game was the ability of Stark and Johnson to hit from beyond the three-point arc where, between the two of them, they made seven three-point shots.
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The game was the home opener for the Jacks.
