Girls again make it close

The Jan. 3 basketball game between the Pine City Dragons and the Mille Lacs Raiders was postponed due to bad weather. That contest will be rescheduled.

Hinckley/Finlayson

Coming off a close, six-point loss to Greenway prior to the holiday break, the Mille Raiders girls basketball squad again put up a fight last Friday evening, only to lose to the visiting Hinckley/Finlayson Jaguars, 50-37.

The loss left the Raiders 0-6 on the season with three games scheduled for the second week in January.

 The game was a closer than the final score would indicate. Down by just three points with five minutes left in the first half, the Jags went on a 10-3 run to take a 10-point lead by intermission. 

Midway through the 18-minute second half, the Raiders had cut into the Jaguar’s half-time lead and were down by only seven points. But Hinckley went on to outscore their hosts 15-9, including a 6-0 edge from the free throw line down the stretch, to win by 13 points.

In fact, the game may have been decided at the charity stripe where the Jags made good on 16 of 31 tries, while Mille Lacs was just 3-13 from the line.

The teams combined for a scrappy 54 turnovers. 

Nine of the 11 varsity players saw action in the contest, and leading the way on offense was Katlyn Schoeck with 11 points, followed by eight from Paige Strecker and six by Brooklyn Orazem. 

Hinckley/Finlayson   28   22      50

Mille Lacs              18   19      37

Scoring: Schoeck 11, Strecker 8, Orazem 6, Paulsen 5, Simmons-Merrill 4, Ludwig 3.