Playing in front of a sold out house during homecoming was not the night you'd expect to come out flat, but that is exactly what happened to the Cloquet Lumberjacks in their 57-46 loss to Denfeld.
"We just came out flat and they played well right out of the chute in the first half," said Cloquet coach Steve Battaglia. "We just took a while to get going and by then it was too late."
Denfeld did a good job of moving the ball quickly against the Jacks in the first half and finding the open man in their offense. The result? Denfeld hit for a high percentage early as they opened a wide gap against the hometown squad.
"They hit their shots early and we didn't," explained Battaglia. "We missed way too many shots right underneath and you have to have those shots."
At one point in the first half the Jacks missed five consecutive shots from within five feet, but to their credit they persevered and made a game of it late.
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"I thought we executed all the way up to making the shot," suggested Battaglia. "You've got to make those easy shots and if we had made them it would have been a much tighter game."
Trailing 27-15 at the half, the Jacks outscored the Hunters 31-30 in the second half.
"I thought Ryan Lindstrom did a nice job defending Steve Birman, who can go off for 30 points in just about any game," stated Battaglia. "We also did a good job of defending their big guy, Trent Beise, and I thought Ryan Erkilla played very well."
Erkilla led the Jacks with an 18-point effort, Cory Koning finished with 10, Derek Johnson added eight, Andy Kochneff scored seven, Chad Calcaterra added a pair of points and Darren Powell had a point.
Cory Schleret led the Hunters with 15 and Birman added 11 points.
Pine Journal sports reporter Kerry Rodd can be contacted at: kdrodd@aol.com .
