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Already facing an uphill climb this season due to injuries, the Chisago Lakes Wildcats were dealt another blow in their 67-30 loss to North Branch on Thursday, January 21.

Thea Kluge, the ‘Cats leading scorer since top two scoring threats Carmen Backes and Alyssa Bjelland went down for the season, broke her hand late in the contest. She joins Backes and Bjelland on the bench for the rest of the year.

In the game, the Vikings used their senior leadership and overall athletcism advantage to take control of the game from the opening tip and never relinquish it.

The story on the night was North Branch’s ability to clean up their misses on offense. They grabbed 12 offensive boards altogether while Chisago Lakes only had 19 rebounds total.

Morgen Coleman was the top scorer for North BRanch as she put in 17 points. Fellow senior Courtney Selbitschka had 12 points and Maiya Fair chipped in 10 points and nine rebounds. Six other Lady Vikes’ scored as there was a parade of subs midway through the second half.

The Vikings also had 15 steals on the night, which turned into a lot of fast break points against Chisago Lakes.

Next up for North Branch is back-to-back road trip chance. They’ll host St. Francis on Friday, January 29 at 7:15 p.m., but then turn around the next day and head up to Grand Rapids for a 3 p.m. matinee with the Thunderhawks. The win over Chisago Lakes left the Vikings at 11-3 on the season and in a prime spot for a top section seed.

For Chisago Lakes, they’ll try to break an 11 game losing streak when they host Buffalo on Friday, January 29 and Duluth Denfeld on Tuesday, February 2. The loss dropped them to 2-13 after a 2-2 start to the season.

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