Huskies Successful in First Round of Tourn Play

The Lady Huskies used stifling defense to keep the Vikings to 10 points at the halftime break and winning the game by 85-42.

The crowd for Bigfork was fantastic and one of the biggest for an away game yet! I guess being at Greenway and closer to Bigfork helped but it was really nice to see so many there supporting the girls. I'm sure it will be harder for the fans to get to Duluth on Saturday for the late 7:45 pm game! Just hope some will be able to make it!! The boys have a game tonight at Lake of the Woods and won't be arriving home until really late so hopefully some of them can get to the game in Duluth...it was nice to see most of the boys' team in attendance rooting the girls on also.

The girls came out hungry and played great defense...the Vikings didn't get their first two points until about 8 minutes into the first half! Believe the score was 19 or 21-2!!! Lots of girls got to play last night and many also scored which was nice to see. The final score was 85-42. Unfortunately there was no coverage in any paper this morning on the game!!! Ted Anderson from the Hibbing paper was there taking pictures of the Chisholm/MIB game but must have left. Thanks a bunch!

Shelby ended up with a career high of 35 points tonight with many family members in the crowd watching. It didn't look like she was going to hit anything for quite a while then they started to go in. Everyone played tough and hard and it was a fun game for the Bigfork fans to watch...well, it could have been a more challenging game but it's fun to see the girls' passing so well and making their plays. I'm sure the coach was happy with what he saw. Adrianna and Megan both had 10 points, Jenna 9, Lise 6, Carolyn 5, Theresa 4, Ashley 3 and Rachel and Robin 2 each.

The little girl in the picture is Shelby's niece Madysen who came all decked out with drawings all over her jeans and a big #3 on each back pocket! It was really cute and her mom (Shelby's sister Desirae) did a great job! Hopefully we'll have a few more basketball players to play in Bigfork as the years go by!

The girls will now face Mountain Iron-Buhl at UMD in Duluth this Saturday at 7:45 pm. Such a late game but they'll be able to watch the games beforehand which should be interesting. I think it will be a good game to watch!

Hope to see many Bigfork fans in the crowd on Saturday! Go Lady Huskies! You girls are awesome to watch!!!!

Lady Huskies Set to Play Littlefork-BigFalls 2/28/08

The Lady Huskies will start off tournament play tonight against the Vikings of Littlefork-Big Falls at the Greenway gymnasium at 7:45 p.m. This will be the third time the girls will have played this year the Huskies coming out victorious both times with scores of 81-28 and 87-35.

Mountain-Iron Buhl will play Chisholm at 6:00 pm before our game and the girls will play the winner of that game.

I will post pictures and scores tomorrow!

Article in Mesabi Range Daily News

Go to www.virginiamn.com and go to the sports page for an article talking about the upcoming Section 7A tournament games and of course, Bigfork being the top seed in the north half of Section 7A!!! Woohoo!!!

QRF #8 for 2/25/08 & a POSTER!!

The QRF was recalculated today and the girls moved from #7 to #8 with Minneota moving ahead of them....their score is 123 now.

I ordered Posters for the Lady Huskies and just received them!!! They are really cool! I will have them at the school for sale for $6.00 each at the boys' game tomorrow and will leave some in the office with Mrs. Prato.

#5 Klamm makes Mesabi Range Hon. Mention for week

Lady Huskie Annalise Klamm made the Honorable Mention list for the week in the Mesabi Range Daily News. It's about time they have a Lady Huskie mentioned! Way long overdue on that one, Mesabi Range....I guess since she scored the same as Charlotte Overbye, they thought they would mention her!!! Geez, what does it take? The girls are 23-2 and they still can't get Duluth News Tribune or Mesabi Range paper to give them a little credit for their great season. Same record as Barnum and Wrenshall. Wrenshall just has one more win because they have one more game on their schedule than we do.

I guess that's what we get for living in the middle of nowhere!

Great job Annalise!!!

QRF Changed Again

The Minnesota Scores updated the QRF last Friday and Bigfork jumped to the #7 position right behind Wrenshall.  Here are the top 12:

1.  New Life Academy(23-3), 157.5
2.  Battle Lake(23-0), 141.9
3.  Barnum(23-3), 139.3
4.  Ada-Borup(24-1), 138.3
5.  Granada-Huntley-East Chain(22-0), 133.6
6.  Wrenshall(24-2), 130.6
7.  Bigfork(23-3), 122.5
8.  Minneota(21-3), 122.0
9.  Sebeka(21-4), 121.9
10. Maranatha Christian(23-3), 118.6
11. Russell-Tyler-Ruthton(21-5), 117.2
12. Hancock(19-4), 117.1

Top 20 Points Scored:

1. Wrenshall 74.2
2. Barnum 73.8
3. Adrian 72.8
4. Ada-Borup 71.6
5. Sebeka 71.3
6. Bigfork 68.8

Top 20 Points Allowed:

1. Schaeffer Academy  35.0 (only played one game though)
2. Marantha Christian 35.5
3. Ada-Borup 35.7
4. Barnum 38.6
5. Ad & Food Sciences Academy 39.0 (played one game)
6. Southwest Christian 39.2
7. MN Academy for the Deaf 40.3
8. Bigfork 40.5

Top 20 Points Differential
1. Ada-Borup 35.9
2. Barnum 35.2
3. Wrenshall 30.5
4. Bigfork 28.3

I'll check the QRF later today and see if it changed again after the weekend games.

Lady Huskie Seniors Will Remember Win on Parent's Night

The only two Lady Huskie seniors, Jenna Beckner #21 and Rachel Kacon, #23, will have good memories of their win the last time that they played in the Jerry Chiabotti Gymnasium. It was Parent's Night and always an emotional night for seniors and their parents. Seniors who have been playing basketball since kindergarten and Saturday Ball...many camps together over the years, bus rides with the team and many, many good memories and more to come this season.

Four of the starters had been sick this week and it took a toll on them, but not enough to give the Rangers a win. It was a very aggressive, fast game and a good game to have right before playoffs begin. MIB's freshman shooter, Charlotte Overbye, ended up with 22 points on the night with 5 three's. She can certainly shoot but our Little Lise ended up with 22 points also, so THERE! I guess we have a few that can shoot too....many shots just did not go in for the Huskies either.

Also interesting to note that one of the refs tonight was a prominent figure from Mountain Iron-Buhl no less! We wondered why he seemed so friendly to all of the MIB coaches and players. Quite a few calls were questionable and three of our starters ended up with 4 fouls....hmmmm....what's that about?

There were only five girls scoring tonight but all were in double figures. Annalise with 22, Adrianna with 13 and Jenna, Shelby and Megan all with 10 points....The final score of the game was 65-53. Bigfork ended up with the #1 seed in the north half of Section 7A and will play the 8th or 9th seed at Greenway next Thursday at 7:45. Close to home...nice. Then off to Duluth and will play the #4 or #5 seed and that "could" be Chisholm or MIB again. So it will be interesting to say the least!

QRF and a New Puppy

Just looked at the Minnesota Scores QRF ranking for the girls and they have finally moved back into the top 10 at #9 with a score of 115.9. The AP Polls hasn't been updated as of 2/13/08 so I'll keep checking to see if the girls can finally break into the top ten before the tournaments. It might just be a good thing not to be in the illustrious AP Top Ten so they don't have a target on their backs and can come into the tournaments under the radar.....

Here is a picture of Shelby's new puppy Tucker that we bought from her Biology teacher Mr. Miles, who incidentally was her father's teacher and asst. basketball coach when he was in high school! That kind of dates Mr. Miles!!! Shelby named him Tucker and his "official" AKC name will be Tucker Bear of Wagner Creek. Wagner Creek runs on our land behind the house and we have a thing about bears in this family....wouldn't be that her brother, dad and grandfather are all bear guides? Hmmm...here is a picture of him at 6 1/2 weeks. He had his 9 week shots today which wiped him out for some reason. He slept in the car and then by my feet at the computer and was snoring away....

Everyone is looking forward to a good game tomorrow night against the Rangers of Mountain Iron-Buhl who has a freshman that is averaging 25 points per game. It will be interesting to see how they handle the Lady Huskie's defense :)

The new Conference Champion t-shirts came in today! Greg just ordered them Monday so that is REALLY fast! I can't wait to get mine...

Go Lady Huskies!!!!

Huskies Prevail Over the Timberwolves, 59-34

Last night's game and journey to and from Ely was an experience. First off, the girls and Bigfork fans made the 2 hour trek way up north to Ely for an important section game. The further we got, the colder it got and the temperature kept dropping as we ventured home with the wind kicking in also.

This was the first time the girls have played in the Ely gym and it was one of the most interesting gyms they have played in, and probably one of the oldest. We walked around the school and were very impressed with the architecture, old photos from days and classes past, old pewter trophies, intricate light fixtures and murals, etc. One of the cleanest and most interesting schools we as parents have been in yet. We were very impressed with Ely High School.

One of the starters, Annalise Klamm, became sicker as the miles went on and when the girls finally got into the gym she was curled up in her blanket on the floor in the bleachers feeling very ill....she tried her best to play a little in the first half but was just too sick to continue. Ely came out very aggressive and played right along with our girls keeping the game within 6 points at the half time break, 32-26.

The Huskies went into the locker room and came out with a game plan that kept the Ely Timberwolves from scoring no more than 9 points in the second half. Jenna Beckner and Shelby Goble hit from downtown 9 times, with Jenna hitting 5 and Shelby hitting 4 three pointers. Megan Powell was very successful inside as the ball was fed to her with some great passes from all of the girls. Megan ended up with 15 and Adrianna 3 points on the night. Only four girls scored in this game, which is surprising. Their defense was great as usual!

Jerry and Susie Chabiotti came to the game, Paul McDonald who runs the McDonald's Hoop Camp in Ely that the five starters have all been to when they were younger, Mesabi Range coach, Vermillion coach, UWS coach and a Vermillion player who brought Annalise Tum's were all in the audience for a good game of basketball on a very cold night.

After leaving the school the fans and team drove past a small park filled with huge and very detailed ice sculptures! We had to turn back and drive around the park again just to see them all...they were unbelievable! I wish we would have seen them before the game and had the girls take pictures by them....there some very talented people in Ely....

In school today two starters did not make it to school because of illness and another two went home feeling ill. Hopefully they will all be back to school Wednesday as they have a big game at home on Thursday against Mountain Iron-Buhl, (who were in the stands last night) and it is also Parent's Night for the two seniors, Rachel and Jenna.

Thursday will be the Lady Huskies' last regular season game and last home game of the season. Let's hope they are all feeling healthy and ready to go!

Conference Champions 2007-2008

The Lady Huskies clinched the Northern Lakes Conference Championship with their victory over the Littlefork Vikings last night. The final score was 87-35 and all five starters reached double figures last night with Jenna and Lise scoring 18 each, Shelby with 15 and Megan and Adrianna each scoring 14. A very balanced attack with lots of steals and great passing again. Their passing skills and knowing where each other are on the floor is what makes the game so exciting for the fans.

The girls went 9-1 in the conference to take the title....I'm sure new conference champs t-shirts are on their way!!! :)

CONGRATULATIONS to Senior Rachel Kacon for being voted as 2008 Sweetheart Queen and Jacob Rahier as King!!

Nashwauk beat Chisholm on the the streaks home court last night to take probably take second seed in our half of Section 7A. That means we will not play Nashwauk again unless they beat Wrenshall along the way to the Championship game. The seeding meeting is probably this weekend so the girls should find out on Monday who they will play when tournaments start on the 26th. The girls will get a bye and play at Greenway on the 28th at 7:45 pm. It is nice that it will closer to Bigfork so more fans can attend the game! After the Greenway site, it will be off to UMD in Duluth for the remainder of the games on the 1st, 6th and 8th of March.

Congratulations girls and keep up the good work!

Conference Title on the Line, Huskies Take Round #3

With the Northern Lakes Conference title riding on this game, the Lady Huskies pulled out win #3 against the Nashwauk-Keewatin Spartans this year. Adrianna came out with a big game and played very aggressive under the basket and was also top scorer with 16. The girls all played well even though the shots did not seem to be falling like they usually do. That seems to be the case when the girls play at Nashwauk anyway, so I guess that was to be expected!

Bigfork was ahead 21-10 at the halftime and ended up winning the game by six points, 53-47. Lots of familiar faces in the stands, including the girls' old Gym Rat coach, Tim Mayclin. Adam from UWS came to watch again and the Wrenshall coaches were also in the stands scouting the teams for tournament play. Many of the Huskie boys came to support the girls also which was nice to see!

The girls do need to beat Littlefork this Thursday at home to take conference title but beat them earlier in the season by 50 points so that should be obtainable! The following week the girls will make the long trek to Ely for the first time and then the girls' last home game against Mountain Iron-Buhl which will be another big game before the tournaments begin.

Good job again Lady Huskies!!!!

Huskies take the Sting out of the Hornets

Another conference win for the Lady Huskies beating Hill City 34-16 at the half and the final score being 77-33. Three were in double digits with Jenna and Shelby both ending up with 18 and Annalise with 12. Adrianna, Megan, Rachel, Teresa and Carolyn also on the scoreboard. The girls are now 19-2, #14 on the QRF and have still not broken back into the Top 10 for Class A yet! Don't get that one! Wrenshall was beaten this week by Barnum so their record also stands at 19-2 and they are number 1 seed right now in the other half of Section 7A while Bigfork is the number 1 seed right now in their half of Section 7A. Looks like both teams will end up being the number 1 seed which should have them battling in the end to get to the State tournament. Barring no surprise upsets on either end of tournament play and no one gets hurt!

Shelby rolled her weak ankle in the second half and watched the game on the sidelines while icing her ankle. We took her to the ER to have it x-rayed just to be safe and it showed that nothing was broken. It actually did not swell much either. She's been icing it and taking Tylenol for the pain and was able to walk on it without much of a limp by Friday afternoon. Yeah! Missed practice but should be able to play on Monday.

The girls will take on the Nashwauk-Keewatin Spartans in a game that could decide the Northern Lakes Conference Champions. It should be a good game although it seems everytime we play there they have an invisible cover on our basket! A deceiving gym where one end has a wall close to the basket and the other end is open.

The girls have beat them twice this year so they are confident they will do it again! Good luck girls!

Ben Hoyt Reaches 1,000 Point Milestone!

Huskie Ben Hoyt, a senior, joined the 1,000 point club on Tuesday in a rival matchup with the Spartans of Nashwauk-Keewatin. Ben needed 15 points and ended with 22 and five 3 pointers. He was unaware of how close he was to the milestone even though many family members were scattered throughout the bleachers. The game was very exciting with Bigfork up for most of the first half and the game went back and forth the second half with the Huskies losing only by 2 with a three point shot by Hoyt at the buzzer. The final score was 62-60.

Ben's 3 point shot picture is actually the close up shot where you can see the determination on his face and a Spartan trying to block him.

Congratulations to Ben Hoyt, #11.

Huskies prepared for Round #2 against Rival Deer River

The girls had another balanced attack against a very physical Deer River Warriors team.  There were four girls scoring in double figures again with Megan leading the way with 19, Jenna, Shelby and Annalise.  Adrianna also scored tonight.  Actually the only scoring tonight was done by the five starters!  Adrianna did have to sit for a little while as she was in foul trouble.  The game got a little rough and both of the Petersen twins from Deer River fouled out.The score at the half was 31-21 Bigfork and the final was 65-46.  Another great team effort by the girls with some great passing plays that paid off.  Great job girls!

Off to Nashwauk now for a very early game boys game at 1:30!!!! The caucuses are today so they need the school for that later in the day. Ben Hoyt is getting close to making the 1,000 point club so I want to be there for pictures just in case!

Taking control over the Knights

After playing Greenway the night before, the girls played the Lady Knights of Babbitt-Embarrass and came away with another win. Their record now stands at 17-2 and are #13 on the QRF as of 2/1/08. In the most recent Minnesota Basketball News publication the girls are ranked #11 in the state in Class A.

The score at halftime was 51-17 and the final score was 94-40. There were FIVE girls reaching double figures in this game! They are Jenna, Shelby, Adrianna, Megan and Rachel. Rachel had an outstanding game and ended up with 17 points! Others scoring were Lise, Teresa, Carolyn, Stacey, Gianna and Robin. Nice to see them come off the bench and score!

The girls play their rival Deer River again on Monday, 2/4/08 and we have the home court advantage this time. Lulu is out for the season and Allie Benham is back in the line up. It is always an interesting game when the Lady Huskies play the Warriors.

Good Luck Girls!!!