Huskies slam door on Chi-Hi

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By DAVID BOSSICK
david.bossick@lee.net
Saturday, December 20, 2008 12:52 AM CST

EAU CLAIRE -- It was a night of opportunities Friday.

Eau Claire North’s Nate Robertson and Tyler Sonsalla made the most of theirs and limited Chippewa Falls’ opportunity to open up the Big Rivers Conference race in a 55-31 Huskies victory.

With UW-Madison commitment Evan Anderson still nursing a sprained ankle, Robertson and Sonsalla picked up some of the slack. Robertson had 15 and Sonsalla added 14.

“What people have to understand is that we don’t have four of our top six players from last year,” North coach Pat Hammond said. “We had other kids that stepped up.

“Robertson got a couple of nice steals and they were aggressive. Robertson and Sonsalla stepped up and took some pressure off of (Tyler) Brown and (Andy) Kleist.”

North (4-2, 2-0 BRC) had between a two to seven-point lead through the first half, led by Central Michigan-bound Brown who finished with 14 points.

But it ballooned into a double digits in the third quarter as the Huskies were able to get several lay-ups.

“We shot some lay-ups off of the press. That helps the shooting percentage,” Hammond said. “A lot of the third quarter and fourth quarter, we limited them to one shot.”

Chippewa coach Luke Madsen was frustrated by the way his team has shown to be inconsistent in the three BRC games this season. The Cardinals (3-2, 1-2 BRC) have been blown out by both North and River Falls and own a win against Rice Lake.

“We’ve got to learn, if we’re going to compete in this conference, that it’s not always going to go well,” he said. “You have to be ready to give your best effort every night. We certainly did not do that tonight.”

The game got out of hand in the fourth quarter as the Cardinals’ troubles with North’s defense continued. Chi-Hi nearly went a full eight minutes of game time without scoring a basket. Jared Jaquish hit a 3-pointer with 16.3 seconds left in the third quarter and Chippewa didn’t score again until Alex Ruf’s free throws with 49 seconds remaining.

Chi-Hi scored its last field goal with 17.9 seconds by Matt Leis. By then, the Cardinals were already down 22 points.

“Our defense was very good. We got great effort tonight. Great hustle tonight,” Hammond said. “Chippewa didn’t make their shots and I think we had a lot to do with that.”

The victory was something that Hammond wanted to see after back-to-back losses to Wisconsin Rapids and Superior.

“I’m proud of the kids after two tough losses,” he said. “It was a great team win.”

Madsen said the Cardinals will practice during a small break before a tournament in Wausau. He said the practices, though, aren’t going to be tougher nor are they the problem.

“They’ve been through this. The practices are plenty tough,” he said. “It’s not about me yelling and screaming and making practices harder. It’s about us transferring things that we’re doing in practices into game situations.

“We’re so inconsistent. We play well one game and we turn around a play poorly the next.”