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Chisago Lakes 85, Columbia Heights 53

With a 2-0 start in hand, the Chisago Lakes girls basketball team had a boatload of confidence traveling down to Columbia Heights last week.

The Hylanders have traditionally struggled, and Whitney Tinjum and the rest of the Wildcats made sure Heights' didn't surprise them at all.

The Wildcats took an early lead, and were never really threatened by the under-manned Hylanders.

The Wildcats' defense was hot and cold on the night. They did come up with an astounding 35 steals, but Head Coach Craig Walker still thought his defense left much to be desired. "Our 'D' continues to struggle a little bit and we commit too many fouls which keeps teams in the game," Walker said. "I think Heights shot 35 free throws, and that needs to change."

Outside of the porous defense, however, the Wildcats were clicking on offense. Freshman Whitney Tinjum led the 'Cats with her first career triple double. She had 26 points, 11 rebounds and 12 steals. Tinjum commanded double- and triple-teams in the paint, but she still rose above the Heights' defenders for her amazing stat line.

Cami Sell and Kelsey Ristow each added 15 points in the offensive onslaught, and Cassie Trandahl had 13 points.

"We're tremendously happy to be 3-0 at this point in the season, but there are many parts of our game that need improvement," Walker noted.

Totino-Grace 78, Chisago Lakes 47

In a match up of two undefeated squads, the Eagles thrashed the Wildcats and proved to them that they have a long way to go to dethrone the champs.

Totino Grace was 19-1 in the conference last year, and won the state championship in Class AAA, so it was a good measuring stick for the Wildcats.

Not only did the 'Cats' defensive woes haunt them against the high-powered Eagles, even their offense went cold in their biggest game of the year so far.

Totino opened the game sinking shots left and right. They were putting them in from the baseline to the top of the key to the three point line. "We couldn't find an answer defensively," Walker explained. "We have been struggling with understanding the rotations in our zone defense early in the year and have gotten away with it against some lesser opponents, but tonight, Totino was able to exploit the gaps and everything they shot went in."

The game was out of reach for the Wildcats at halftime, and although they came out with a little more life in the second half, but at that point, the game was basically over, according to Walker.

Tinjum again led the Wildcats by stuffing the box score with 22 points and 10 rebounds.

Anoka 58, Chisago Lakes 55

After just trotting out against the best Class AAA had to offer, the Wildcats didn't get any breaks the next night as they jumped up a class to face the Anoka Tornadoes.

Anoka starts to post players who both are in the six-foot territory for height. Walker hoped that his team could come out and run up and down the floor to tire the girls out.

The strategy paid off for most of the first half. Although Amy Waterman, Anoka's premiere player, was scoring, the Wildcats led 31-25 as the first half was winding down. Anoka, however, made back-to-back three pointers to end the half and tie the game up.

"Waterman pretty much did what she wanted in the first half, and we didn't get the benefit of any help from the refs," Walker said. "Usually, big post players who use their bodies to make space will get a couple of calls against them early. We didn't get those calls and we don't have the physical size to match up on big posts."

The resulting momentum swing from the big three pointers to end the half hurt the Wildcats in the second stanza of the close game.

After building another slight lead, Summer Young fouled out, and the Wildcats went into a tailspin offensively. "We scored six points in the final eight minutes of the game, which is about the same amount of time that Summer was out," Walker said. "We made a mistake not getting her out of the game after her fourth foul. She played a few minutes with four and we needed her in the game to distribute the ball and lead our offense. She was playing her best game offensively getting to the rim and scoring eight points in the first half."

Anoka retook the lead in the cold snap, and the Wildcats dropped their second straight after opening up 3-0.

The Wildcats were again led by Tinjum. The fabulous freshman had 27 points as the top scorer in the game. But, Walker knows he can't just rely on Tinjum for every Wildcat game. "We need to have our guards step up and be confident in their shots to take pressure off of Whitney," Walker said. "We are starting to get more shots from our other guards and trying to be more balanced as we look to be more patient offensively."

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