Esko edged St. Croix Lutheran 40-39 on Saturday in Esko in a matchup of high school boys basketball teams seeking to return to the state tournament.
The fifth-ranked Eskomos led 13-11 at halftime, a score reminiscent of their 37-35 loss to St. Croix Lutheran in the 2015 Class AA state quarterfinals, a game in which Esko trailed 10-7 at halftime. Both teams returned to state last spring.
Quinn Fischer was the lone Esko player in double figures with 12 points.
Girls basketball
Grand Rapids 62, Hermantown 46
Heaven Hamling and Hannah DeMars combined for 35 points and seven 3-pointers to lead unbeaten Grand Rapids past host Hermantown in nonconference action.
Hamling had 20 points and four long-range shots and her teammate added 15 points and a trio of 3s to help the sixth-ranked Thunderhawks improve to 6-0.
Grand Rapids raced to a 39-24 halftime lead and was never threatened in the second half.
Superior 49, Cloquet 39
The Spartans used balanced scoring and a strong defense to down the Lumberjacks in the second game of a tripleheader at Hermantown.
Ellie Leadstrom’s 13 points led Superior, which broke away from a one-point halftime lead in the second half.
Proctor 66,
Duluth Denfeld 17
The Rails bolted to a 42-14 halftime lead and then held the Hunters to three points in the second half to kick off the tripleheader involving LSC teams at Hermantown.
Boys hockey
Elk River 3, Grand Rapids 1
Blake McLaughlin’s opening power-play goal didn’t hold up as the fourth-ranked Elks rallied to beat No. 3 Grand Rapids at the Edina Classic.
Connor Bizall and Jax Murray netted third-period goals to break a 1-1 tie and hand Grand Rapids (7-1) its first loss. The Thunderhawks earlier beat top-ranked Eden Prairie and No. 7 Edina in the tournament.
Hermantown 8, New Prague 1
Dylan Samberg and Matt Valure each had two of the Hawks’ five second-period goals in the nonconference home rout.
Hermantown (3-1-1) outshot New Prague 49-12.
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Girls hockey
Proctor-Hermantown 4,
Red Wing 2
Olyvia Opsahl and Brionna Stafne each scored a pair of goals as the seventh-ranked Mirage (7-3) turned back No. 14 Red Wing in nonconference action at Proctor.
Nordic skiing
Duluth East sweeps opener
The Duluth East boys and girls teams swept titles at the season-opening Ely Invitational on Friday at Hidden Valley.
The boys team totaled 371 points to edge runner-up Grand Rapids by 13 points. Proctor-Hermantown’s Nathan Bich was the individual winner in 16 minutes, 35 seconds.
In the girls race, East was 14 points better than host Ely, though Proctor-Hermantown again won the individual title when Hannah Bettendorf reached the finish in 18:06.
Alpine skiing
East, Nordin win boys race
Ryan Nordin skied to the individual title, leading Duluth East to the boys crown at the season-opening Virginia Invitational on Friday at Giants Ridge.
Nordin reached the bottom of the hill in 1:16.01 to win by more than 2 1/2 seconds and the Greyhounds to a team championship by 11 points over Brainerd.
Reilly Wahlers was the girls winner in 1:21.94 to lead her Cook County/Silver Bay team to the win.
