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   The HCN Storm girls basketball team finished their first week back with a long road trip to Silver Bay on January 8th and then hosted Ely at home on January 10th in Remer. Both games proved to be close competitions, but with differing outcomes.

   Against Silver Bay, instead of the Storm extending their 14 point lead at halftime, the Mariners managed to claw their way back, with hot shooting and aggressive defense, making it an exciting second half. The Storm held onto the lead  and finished with a win, 66–62. 

   Maddie Barnes led the Storm with a career high 22 points and three assists. Nora Wake finished with 19 points, four assists and Charity Berg contributed 13 points and four steals. Ashlyn Schwarz led the team in rebounding with seven.

   Next up the Storm took on the Wolves from Ely in a doubleheader with the boys Storm basketball team. This time the Storm found themselves trailing at halftime by nine points.

   The girls came out and kept chipping away at the lead and finally tied it up half way through the second half. For the last 10 minutes it was a back and forth affair. With 10 seconds left on the clock, the Storm led by one point, but unfortunately the Wolves sunk a three-pointer and prevented the Storm from getting off another decent shot to tie it up or take the lead.   The Game ended with a score of 59–61.

   Wake lead the Storm with 19 points and five assists, Berg added 13 points, seven assists and seven steals and Barnes finished with 12 points. Madi King pulled down 15 rebounds.

   On January 12th,  the Storm girls hit the road once again to take on a tough section opponent, the Bluestreaks of Chisholm.

   The Storm came in with a game plan to slow down the game and to not give up second chance shots, but despite being successful at times, they fell to Chisholm with a score of 31 to 66. 

   “We had a couple lapses where we turned the ball over too much and just couldn’t get some of our shots to fall under their defensive pressure. The girls worked really hard though and I’m proud of their effort. Our goal was not to go into running time and we just fell short of that right before we cleared the benches in the last two minutes. That’s probably the toughest gym in the section to play in. It’s small and really loud,” said Alec Wake. “The girls stayed pretty composed. I can see improvement in that as the season has progressed.”

   Wake finished with eight points, 10 rebounds and four assists. Jasmine Kingsley added six points and Barnes had five points. Ashlyn Schwarz also contributed five points, in addition to six rebounds. Berg grabbed eight rebounds and King pulled down seven.

   At the time of press the results of the Mille Lacs and Littlefork-Big Falls games were not available. On Mon., Jan. 19 the girls traveled to Cromwell-Wright to take on the Cardinals. The Storm then host Greenway/Nashwauk-Keewatin in Hill City on Tues., Jan. 20 before hitting the road again Thurs., Jan. 22 to Cherry. On Mon. Jan. 26 the Storm will then find themselves traveling to Laporte to take on the Wildcats.

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