Hermantown’s explosive girls basketball team improved to 5-2 overall and extended its winning streak to three games with impressive victories against Chisago Lakes 65-45 and Grand Rapids 69-25 last week.
“Our goal last week was to ‘win the week,’ which we were able to accomplish by beating two section opponents,” said Hawks coach Eric Borndal. “We've found a lot of success by going to our size inside with Olivia Johnson and Aurora Decker. Both had double-doubles against Chisago Lakes, and Danika Bolf and Jailyn Sherrill had double-digit points against Grand Rapids.”
Now, Borndal wants his team to be more dialed in offensively at the beginning of games “as we have not been very efficient to start the last couple games.”
“Yet, I admire our defensive effort and our ability to work hard and gain a nice advantage early in the second half,” said Borndal.
The Hawks will host Cloquet (2-5, 0-2 LSC) on Tuesday and travel to Duluth Denfeld (1-5, 0-2) Friday. Both are winnable Lake Superior Conference games. Hermantown opened the season with a 60-49 victory against the Lumberjacks.
“We have a huge challenge versus Cloquet, a team we were able to defeat in a tight game to open the season, and I look forward to seeing how we adjust to seeing a team for the second time,” said Borndal. “We will do our best to use our strengths of numbers and size to the best of our ability, and hope to limit their offensive opportunities with solid defense. Coach Young will have their team ready to play, and it should be a heck of a game.”
Meanwhile, the Hunters are slowly rebuilding their program and look to be competitive.
“We will need to be focused and execute our offensive at a high level in both games,” said Borndal. “We hope to ‘win the week’ again and set ourselves up for a fun start to the new year.”
2024-25 Hermantown Girls Basketball Schedule / Results
At Cloquet – W 60-49. Overall: 1-0. Lake Superior Conference: 1-0. Home 0-0. Road 1-0.
At Bemidji – L 60-49. Overall: 1-1. LSC: 1-0. Home: 0-0. Road: 1-1.
North Branch – W 65-52. Overall: 2-1. LSC: 1-0. Home: 1-0. Road: 1-1.
Proctor -- L 66-32. Overall 2-2. LSC: 1-1. Home 1-1. Road: 1-1.
Irondale – W 72-17. Overall: 3-2. LSC: 1-1. Home 2-1. Road 1-1.
Chisago Lakes, W 65-45. Overall: 4-2. LSC: 1-1. Home 3-1. Road 1-1.
At Grand Rapids -- W 69-25. Overall: 5-2. LSC: 2-1. Home 3-1. Road 2-1.
Tuesday – Cloquet
Friday – at Duluth Denfeld
Dec. 26-27 – at Esko Tournament
Jan. 3 – at Duluth East
Jan. 10 – at East Grand Forks
Jan. 11 – at Crookston
Jan. 14 – at Rock Ridge
Jan. 16 – at Proctor
Jan. 21 – at Hibbing
Jan. 28 – at Superior
Jan. 30 – at Mesabi East
Feb. 6 – Grand Rapids
Feb. 7 – Duluth Marshall
Feb. 11 – Hibbing
Feb. 13 – Esko
Feb. 18 – Duluth East
Feb. 20 – at North Woods
Feb. 26, Mar. 1, Mar. 6 – Section Tournament
Home games listed in boldface.