Cromwell-Wright and Wrenshall girls basketball met up Thursday, Dec. 8 in Cromwell in what turned out to be a fairly lopsided game. The Cardinals have been among the best small-school teams in the region for the past decade, while the Wrens are trying to build a program under second-year coach Emma Grover. The Cards won 72-18, but the Wrens fought to the end, looking at every opportunity to improve.

"It can be a tough game when you know one team is heavily favored," said Cards head coach Jeff Gronner. "We didn't play as well as we can, but we did pass the ball well and got everyone involved in the scoring."

The Cards had five players in double-digit scoring, led by 16 by Isabella Anderson, 13 for Siiena Anderson, 12 for Vaida Blomquist and 10 each for Jill Anderson and Marissa Dahl.

"Cromwell is just a good basketball team, and they found a lot of gaps in our defense," Grover said. "As a team, we did better than last year and we need to keep improving, but we need to limit our defensive mistakes."

Katie Line led the Wrens with nine points, Janae Sjodin finished with seven and Frenchie Klimek

added two points to round out the scoring.

Also scoring for the Cards were Mya Gronner with seven and two each for Emaleigh Olesiak and Emerson Lind.

"As a team, we are still trying to figure things out, like our rotations and things like that," said coach Gronner. "We only suited up nine against Wrenshall because of sickness and injuries. It is still too early to tell what kind of team we have, but I think we're a good team, it's just hard to know this early in the season."

While the Cards are hoping to make a deep run into the sectional playoffs again, the Wrens are looking at game-to-game improvements as they continue to try and build their program, which will join with Carlton next season. The schools have agreed to combine sports starting in spring.

Dan Saletel

Cromwell-Wright's Marissa Dahl goes up for a shot over Wrenshall's Frenchie Klimek as the Cardinals hosted the Wrens Dec. 8. The Cards coasted to a 72-18 win.

"Against Cromwell we had some sickness and we struggled, but we got some shots that just didn't fall," Grover said. "We are trying to focus on our defense and learning to play with more speed and work on our footwork to close up some of those gaps which lead to easy shots. We'll just continue to work on the little things, and as those little things improve I know we'll see improvement in our overall game."

Cromwell-Wright had a much tougher task on Tuesday this week against Cloquet. The Lumberjacks defeated the Cards 53-40.