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The Chisago Lakes boys basketball team opened the 2005-06 season at home against St. Michael-Albertville Friday, December 2. The STMA Knights went home with a 64-55 win.

The Wildcats got off to a slow start and fell behind early in the contest. They fought back to tie the game at 16 and then, again at 20. They even had the lead a couple of times. At the intermission, the score was STMA 24, Chisago Lakes 23.

At that point, 6’7” senior center Trevor Johnson had taken advantage of his size and experience against the Knights’ smaller post players. STMA’s tallest player is a 6’3” sophomore and the Wildcats got Johnson the ball in places where he was able to score. Johnson’s 13 points and three’s from juniors Brian Jennissen, Chris Golv and Zach Sill kept CL within reach.

“What did us in,” said Wildcat head coach Herb Jangor, “was that we scored seven points in about the first 10 minutes of the second half.”

The Wildcat’s inexperience showed during that span. “We play aggressive defense and we need to learn to keep our hands off the other team and rely on our teammates for help.” Jangor continued. That defensive inexperience resulted in 16 second half fouls. The Knights capitalized for 19 second half points from the charity stripe.

Already minus senior guard Blane Maher, the Wildcats lost more experience when senior guard Jason Kellum left the game midway through the first half when he was poked in the eye and was unable to return. Maher is recovering from a shoulder injury suffered during the soccer season. Jangor hopes Maher will be able to return to the lineup later this month.

“Trevor (Johnson) had a good game, but, he’d probably be the first to tell you he has the ability to play better. Andy Olness had a good all around game. Toward the end of the game, Andy and Chris Golv started to be more aggressive on offense,” Jangor continued.

“We scored something like 17 points in the last seven minutes. The kids think that they can always come back, which is good. But, that’s really hard to do against good teams at the varsity level,” the Wildcat coach explained. “We need to be more consistent and play two good halves to have a chance to win.”

Jangor was very upbeat about his team’s effort. “The first thing you want to be known for is that your kids will go out and compete. They did. They left it all out on the floor. The second thing you want from them is improvement. I guess we won’t be able to judge that until after the second game.”

The coach tells his kids that a basketball season, especially with young players, is like a roller coaster ride. “We showed a lot of good things, the highs. We need to shorten the dips.”

Scoring summary vs STMA

Cory Claeson........................3 pts

Tyler Bouwens.....................3 pts

Andy Olness.........................6 pts

Brian Jennissen....................3 pts

Chris Golv..........................11 pts

Taylor Jones.........................2 pts

Zach Sill.............................11 pts

Trevor Johnson..................16 pts

The Wildcats were scheduled to play Princeton Tuesday, December 6 and Mahtomedi Friday, December 9. Both games are home at 7:30 p.m.

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