Lady Eagles split two home games

After a 1-1 start to the season, the Northland Pines girls basketball team split two home games this past week, including a 70-37 nonconference win against Hurley, and dropping the Great Northern Conference opener to Tomahawk, 42-39.
The team fell to 2-2 (0-1) with two two-game splits.

Hurley win

The opening game of the homestand was a dominant one for Northland Pines. Seven different players scored for the Lady Eagles and the defensive effort was there all game.
Pines head coach Jaclyn Halsey said there was confidence heading into the week and everything went to plan, besides fouls, in the win. It was a full team effort according to Halsey.

“I felt the team was confident in our game plan. We wanted to keep offensive spacing wide in order to challenge the defensive rotations of Hurley. We executed that really well. By doing so, we continued to provide a lot of scoring opportunities,” she said. “Our offense is not built around one or two players. Our offense is meant for everyone to touch the basketball and have an equal opportunity to score. We capitalized on that by having seven girls scoring.”
That included another 20-plus point performance for senior Vienna Klemett with 21 points. Kaydence Brost followed that up with 18 points of her own.
“She plays hard, always dedicated, and loves the game. I needed her to have a breakout game early this season. All of us coaches and players know the type of scorer she can be, and she needed to step up, have confidence, and pull the trigger on her shots,” said Halsey.
Ryley Darr and her sister Ryyn combined for 20 points in the win as well.
The Eagles got in foul trouble early, but players stepped up in different situations to keep Pines ahead.
In the first half, freshman Tatum Meier entered the game for some of the starters who were in early foul trouble.
“On the defensive end, we struggled with fouls for multiple different reasons. Oddly enough, we fouled less in our initial man-to-man than in our zone,” explained Halsey. “That comes from our defense rotations being a little late. That is not typical for our team, but something that we can’t let slip. We did, however, crash the boards a little harder than our previous game. Again, always just looking for growth from game to game.”
Against Tomahawk, Pines led for the majority of the contest, leading by 18 at halftime, but a late surge by the Hatchets gave them the lead and the eventual conference road victory. Tomahawk scored the final 15 points of the game to complete the comeback.
Pines looks to shake that loss off with another GNC matchup in Rhinelander this Friday, Dec. 13, starting at 7:15 p.m. It will then host another nonconference home game versus Florence Tuesday, Dec. 17, at 7:15 p.m.