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The Wildcat boys fell behind early and were never able to catch up in a 72-56 loss to Spring Lake Park at CLHS Tuesday, January 8.

The Panthers came out fast, taking a 6-0 lead in the first two minutes before Evan Tienken found Jake Warkel open for a short two. A minute later, Josh Figini hit from the outside and the 'Cats trailed 8-4. But, SLP scored the next six and, with less than four minutes gone, the Wildcats trailed 14-4 and CL head coach Herb Jangor called a timeout.

After the timeout, Figini scored the next six consecutive Wildcat points, including four-in-a-row from the freethrow line. Taylor Jones pitched in with a pair from the stripe as the 'Cats closed the gap to 19-12 with 10:48 left in the half. Park came right back with seven quick points to take a 26-12 lead midway through the period.

Figini, Jones and Kyle Hogie scored from the field and point guards Cole Johnson and Eric Reed both went 2 for 2 from the charity stripe before the intermission. But, the Panthers kept pace and, at halftime, the visitors held a 40-26 advantage.

After the break, CL cut the margin to seven. "We mixed up our defenses in the second half and got all five guys involved," Jangor said. "We showed a lot of patience on offense. But, when they put the press on, we forgot about all that and lost our patience. They put the press on and we don't run our press break three times in a row. They score all three times and their lead's right back to 16.

"When we play well together, and communicate with each other we're a pretty good ball club. When we don't do the little things, we're not. We played well in stretches, but we still aren't transferring the things we do in practice to our games," Jangor added.

Figini (18 points, 10 rebounds, 2 blocks) had another outstanding game and Jones had a strong all-around performance. He went 6 for 10 from the field, 2 for 2 from the line, grabbed six rebounds and had two steals and four assists.

SCORING SUMMARY

Sp. Lk. Park 40 32 72

Chisago Lakes 26 30 56

Wildcat Scoring

Kyle Hogie 3

Cole Johnson 2

Eric Reed 3

Mike Corradi 4

Quinn Collins 3

Taylor Jones 14

Evan Tienken 2

Josh Figini 18

Jake Warkel 2

Matt Jorgenson 3

Zak Vrudny 2

Total 56

CL at Robbinsdale-Cooper

At Robbinsdale Friday, January 11, the Cooper Hawk full-court press preyed on the Wildcats as they outscored CL 53-24 in the first half on their way to an 85-48 win.

The visitors stayed in the game for the first few minutes before the Cooper press started to take its toll. "We were only down four points when they went on about a 20-0 run," said Wildcat coach Jangor. "Taylor Jones was on the bench with foul trouble and we didn't handle the pressure. I don't care how good the other team is. There's no excuse for giving up 53 points in a half. We're better than that!"

Junior center Josh Figini was the bright spot for the Wildcats. He scored 23 points, including 11 from the freethrow line.

"We played better in the second half. We've got a good group of kids and they'll play hard," Jangor said. "With our schedule and in this conference, there's not much room for error. We have to play close to our best every night. We can play with these teams if the kids can believe in themselves."

SCORING SUMMARY

Robbinsdale-Cooper

53 32 85

Chisago Lakes 24 24 48

Wildcat Scoring

Kyle Hogie 5

Cole Johnson 4

Mike Corradi 6

Taylor Jones 3

Evan Tienken 2

Josh Figini 23

Benj Figini 2

Crucery, Manuel 1

Total 48

The Wildcats play at North Branch tonight, Thursday, January 17 before returning home to play St. Louis Park Tuesday, January 22. Both Games are scheduled for 7:15 tip-offs.

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