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The Northland Lady Eagles hosted the Pine River-Backus Tigers in a non-conference match-up on Tuesday. Missed opportunities cost the Eagles and the final buzzer told the tale as the girls fell 36-56.

"We played tough with them for much of the game, missed opportunities hurt us. It was an excellent effort and hustle to the end from all the girls," said Coach Jenny Kovall.

Senior guard Tori Howard led the Lady Eagle offense with 13 points. Junior guard Kori Dunham followed with 11 points, 6 boards and 3 take-aways on defense, and junior center Nakina Gross rounded out the top scorers with 9 points and 9 rebounds. Leading scorer, Sierra Likens was held to only 3 boards and 6 steals.[[In-content Ad]]

"A fan from Pine River came up to me after the game and said that my team had more guts than any team he had seen. We may be out-classed at times this year, but hopefully we will never be out-worked. It was a nice compliment coming from a complete stranger," concluded Coach Kovall.

The girls entered their second home contest of the week Thursday as they hosted the Bigfork Huskies. A close competition, weak shooting percentages cost the girls in the 4 point loss 48-52.

"This was a disappointing loss to say the least, a win would have put us to 4-1 in the conference. We played well, but we struggled a bit with their press in the second half. The killer was our free-throw shooting, I've never seen this with such good shooters. 43% from the line, 42% on our three-pointers, we could have won by a good margin, but you just can't shoot that way and win," commented Coach Kovall.

Likens was back on track scoring 15 points with 8 take-aways. Dunham also put up 15 and brought down 9 rebounds. Howard rounded out the top scorers with 8. Lizzie Procopio added 10 boards and Abby Burch was responsible for another 8.

The girls will host Barnum on Jan. 17. Varsity tip-off is at 5:45.

For the season schedule, check out the events calendar at www.pineconepresscitizen.com

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