By Jed Buelow
Tomahawk Leader Co-Editor, Sports, Nature Editor
Tomahawk got 26 points from Drew Bolder and Hatchet big man Connor Dichsen chipped in 16 but it wasn’t enough as Northland Pines went on to get the 86-63 win in Eagle River.
Tomahawk head coach Jacob Jarvensivu said his team actually played pretty good on the offensive side of the ball. It was on the defensive side where they struggled.
Shooting 49 percent night from the floor on the night, Pines jumped out to a 45-32 lead in the first half and remained hot in the second period to get the 23-point win. The Eagles were also aided by some sharp shooting from behind the three point arc as they completed 43 percent from deep with 12 threes made on the night.
“Our defense really let us down. Give them credit for shooting a great percentage, however we definitely could have made things harder on them than we did,” coach Jarvensivu said. “The boys never quit and I am proud of them for that, but we need to play much better defense to win games.”
On Friday Tomahawk traveled to Medford for a conference matchup and fell 82-48.
The turnover was Tomahawk’s big downfall in the loss to the Raiders, as Medford turned more than a few into easy transition buckets to get the GNC win.
“I thought that throughout the game our half-court defense was much better than it has been recently,” the coach said. “The turnover margin is something that we will really have to clean up in the next few weeks if want be peaking in the playoffs.”
Dichsen led Tomahawk in scoring with 18 points. Elijah Scheffler had 13 and D. Bolder scored 9 in the loss to the Raiders.
The Hatchets got their first opportunity to translate fewer turnovers into wins on the scoreboard as they traveled to Chequamegon Monday for a non conference tilt. They will get another opportunity this Friday, Feb. 7 as they go for their second win over Lakeland of the season as they host the T-Birds at Hatchet Fieldhouse. Opening tip is at 7:30 p.m.