Pines falls short in tight GNC battle with Tomahawk

The Northland Pines girls basketball team competed in another tightly contested game with GNC rival Tomahawk last Friday in the fieldhouse, as the Eagles dropped a 46-42 contest.
Northland Pines was also on the wrong end of a loss against the Hatchets earlier this season, falling 63-56 back in December.

“Our takeaway is that we’re back. Our energy is back. We needed that game. It’s a tough loss, but it’s a much easier game to go home and sleep at night,” said Head Coach Jaclyn Halsey after the game.

The Eagles found themselves in a small hole early on, as Tomahawk took a 12-4 lead that forced Coach Halsey into an early timeout.

The Hatchets would lead 19-9 with about eight minutes left in the first half, but the Eagles switched things up defensively, which ignited a 10-7 run to cut the deficit to 26-19 by halftime.

Coach Halsey said the team found some energy on the defensive end, all while trying to limit the playmaking of Tomahawk senior Freya Alberg. The team moved into a high 2-3 trap zone, which forced a few turnovers.

“We were trying to work on switching defense as much as possible, watching where Freya was playing on the floor. I think we find our mojo and our energy when we’re applying full-court pressure,” stated Halsey. “Tomahawk did a good job of breaking our press, so that’s when we went into that half-court trap.”

The start of the second half was shaky for the Eagles as well, as they sat with six team fouls less than four minutes into the second half. Tomahawk extended its lead to 30-23 at that point.

“I’m probably getting known to be a little bit more of a riskier coach. I do have faith in the girls that they can stay on the floor with fouls,” Halsey explained about the foul trouble. “I don’t like girls sitting on the bench for six minutes and then thinking that they’re going to play great coming back into the game. They know that they have to take care of business when they get back out there. The fouls did kill us. We were in the double bonus way too early.”

Later on, a 10-point deficit quickly shifted back to five after Pines senior Aubrey Davis hit a 3-pointer and junior Natalie Kohn followed a missed shot with a layup. Tomahawk held a 36-31 lead with eight minutes left.

Kaydence Brost hit a straightaway jumper to make it a 40-36 game a little bit later, before it sat in favor of Tomahawk at 43-40 with about 2:30 to play. The Eagles eventually needed to play the foul game to extend the contest.

The Eagles also stayed home to face Marathon on Saturday afternoon, with Pines falling in that contest by a score of 79-34.

Pines, now 7-10 overall and 3-7 in the GNC, traveled to face Wausau East Tuesday of this week. That will lead into a GNC showdown with Rhinelander this Friday, Feb. 6, in Eagle River at 6 p.m.