Despite fast start, 'Cats sunk by Liljander's 27

Last week’s opening match up between Cambridge-Isanti and Chisago Lakes was the battle of two Whitney-less programs for the first time in almost four years. The Wildcats recently graduated all-time leading scorer and Washington State recruit Whitney Tinjum. The Bluejackets also just lost Whitney Olson to graduation, their programs all-time leading scorer and a Wayne State freshman basketball player this year. The Jackets and Olson won the match up last year 76-67 This year, the Wildcats hosted the Bluejackets and it became a Battle of the Bry’s, but again, Cambridge-Isanti came out better as a team, winning 66-51. The first half was close as CL’s Bryanna Fernstrom used her size to pound the ball down low while Katelyn Ramberg camped out near the three point line and made good on her opportunities. Ramberg hit four threes in the half. But, C-I features Bryn Liljander this year, a prolific scoring guard, and she seemed to be able to one-up the Wildcats every time they made a good play. She had scored 33 earlier in the week as C-I opened their season a few days earlier, and she was on pace for that kind of night against the ‘Cats when C-I led 33-29 at half. In the second half, the Jackets began to pull away from the Wildcats using a zone defense that ganged up on Fernstrom. “We seemed to be in good position at halftime,” Head Coach Craig Walker said. “But we were unable to find success in the second half against their zone that double, and often triple teamed Fernstrom.” Sophomore Sarah Greene put her best foot forward to pick up the slack, as she was making her first career varsity start after spending last year on the freshmen squad, but her 11 points and eight steals weren’t enough to keep the ‘Cats from going to 0-1 on the year.

“In the end, we couldn’t fine the method to solve the Bluejacket defense and we were unable to stop Liljander in the second half,” Walker said. It also didn’t help that both Ramberg and starting point guard Hannah Trandahl went down with mild injuries in the second half, so any comeback would’ve had to have been without two key contributors on the floor, and it just didn’t work out as CL fell 66-51. “We have a lot of question marks coming off of our their first state tournament appearance last season and a lot of holes to fill,” Walker said after the contest. “There were a lot of good things going on tonight for us that we can build on for next week and next month.” The ‘Cats continued their non-conference slate earlier this week, taking on Cloquet at home, and now they travel to Forest Lake on Friday, Dec. 7 to play the Rangers, and then host the Minnehaha Academy Redhawks on Saturday, Dec. 8 at 2:15 in a rematch of a thrilling 70-67 contest from last year that CL won.