This past week the Lumberjack Basketball TEAM began what some like to call a "winning streak". From what I'm told it happens when a TEAM wins consecutive games without losing one in between. Our program has won the past three games by defeating Dawson CC (NJCAA D1), Presentation JV, and Hibbing CC (NJCAA D3). The TEAM is now 6-1 as WE prepare to play 3 more games this week.
GAME 1 vs Presentation JV
The final score was 91-60 with our TEAM shooting 60% from the field, winning the rebound battle 48-27, and creating 11 steals through pressure defense. During the first half the guys did a great job of causing havoc with defensive traps and hard rotations, but we definitely had moments where TEAM focus was not present. WE expect our players to play the possession instead of the score, and with having many young players this TEAM has a tendency to take plays off. The Presentation team did a great job of playing the second half at a higher level and causing problems. 7 of our players reached double digit scoring, but was lead by Xavier Cruz with 14 and Wesley Harrison who dropped in 12.
GAME 2 vs Hibbing CC
I'm not sure if an "Over-time Thriller" would be the best description of this contest, but our TEAM was lucky enough to skate away with a win 81-72 in OT. This game was self-destruction on both sides as we turned the ball over 20 times, but was fortunate Hibbing CC had 30 turnovers. It was a positive win for the program because we were forced into a corner, and pulled together at the right time to hold onto a win. OUR defense held Hibbing CC to less than 40% from the field, we won the rebound battle 48-44, had 9 steals, and 10 less turnovers.
I am confident in our player's ability to score the ball, but interestingly enough we shot only 17% from the arc (4-23) and 55% from the FT Line (17-31). Once again if there was a silver lining from an OT victory outside of the win column, it's fairly easy to win games when the ball goes in the basket but how does your TEAM respond when shots are not falling? WE answered that question through defense and rebounding. A great TEAM has the guts to defend and the guts to rebound every game.
Top performer once again was Freshman Xavier Cruz who filled up the stat sheet with 18 points, 6 rebounds, 6 steals, and 2 assists. Cruz had a tremendous week for our TEAM, and continues to give us great balance behind Engel. Sophomore Julian Vasquez had a solid outing with 17 points, 8 rebounds and 3 assists. Vasquez would be the first to admit his play has not been extraordinaire of late, but he continues to rebound and make our TEAM better.
Action picks up tomorrow evening at "The Woodshed" as the Lumberjacks take on Concordia-Moorhead JV team. It should be an interesting event as the Concordia team will bring a style we have yet to see.
Thank you for following and see you at The Woodshed!
Get JACKED UP,
Cory Fehringer
