Fernstrom and Greene take over SSP Holiday Classic

Sans their starting point guard, Bryanna Fernstrom took over for the Chisago Lakes Wildcats at the South St. Paul Holiday Classic, and carried them to a 2-0 record in the tournament.

The Wildcats first drew Prescott (WI) for a tussle with the Cardinals. After an evenly matched first half in which the Cards held a one-point lead at the buzzer, the Wildcats climbed on Fernstrom’s shoulders as she carried them to a double-digit win with a big second half. Nobody on Prescott’s roster could deal with Fernstrom’s size as she got baskets at will and intimidated the Prescott players from even entering the paint. When they did venture into Fernstrom territory, she made sure they knew not to come back.

Although the Wildcats like to play a fast pace, they’ve been slowed with the recent injury to senior point guard Sam Forslund, but that doesn’t stop Fernstrom from working in the half-court game. After her destruction of the Cards in the second half, the Wildcats ended up winning 47-37 despite being down one point at half. The senior finished with 24 points, nine rebounds and six blocks. No other Wildcat scored in double digits. However, Sarah Greene did have an active game, scoring seven points and grabbing a game-high 14 rebounds.

Chisago Lakes 61, Concordia Academy 46
Concordia Academy may have come into the game with a 6-1 record, but that didn’t mean anything to Fernstrom, Greene and Company. They came out of the gates blasting, sending a shocked Beacon team to early an early timeout when the Wildcats went up big. They kept pouring it on throughout the first half, eventually stretching their lead to over 20 points in the opening period. “Offensively, this was more like it for us,” Head Coach Craig Walker said. “We were able to cause turnovers defensively and score in transition. We can be tough to defend when get points from the break from Sarah and Carmen and then utilize Bry inside in our half court offense.”

In the second half, it was simply a matter of time before CL was able to walk away as the winner. Their lead was just too big and they were too talented to let the Beacons make any sort of serious run at them. The Wildcats eventually wrapped up the ‘W’ by the score of 61-46. Greene led the Wildcats with 17 points, 10 rebounds and five steals. Her energy on defense and on the boards left the Beacons in awe at times. Her points were a byproduct of her hard work. Fernstrom had another monster game for CL, scoring 16 points, grabbing six boards and swatting seven Beacon shots away. The Wildcats will travel to Grand Rapids on Saturday, Jan. 4 to take on the Thunderhawks in a section showdown at 2 p.m. After that, CL enters their conference schedule, with games against Cambridge-Isanti, Rogers and Princeton from January 10-17.