The Bemidji High boys and girls basketball team face their final Saturday twin bill against CLC opponents today when they head to St. Cloud to battle Apollo.
Bemidji has had previous twin bills with Rocori, Sauk Rapids, Little Falls, Sartell and Alexandria while playing Brainerd on separate nights.
After dividing two games with Rocori and Sauk Rapids, Bemidji has dropped both ends of their meetings with Little Falls, Sartell and Alex.
They may have to settle for a split today.
The girls have the best shot facing an Eagles team that is 7-13 and 5-8 against CLC teams.
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Bemidji takes a 7-15 record into play but has lost nine of its last ten, several in the final minute of play.
Apollo has beaten Little Falls twice and Sauk Rapids and Tech once among its seven wins.
The team is averaging 54.5 points per game and surrendering 60.5. It is tied for seventh in the CLC with Sartell, ahead of only Sauk Rapids and Rocori.
Bemidji is coming off a sub par performance at Thief River Falls where it fell 60-47 to team it beat here 63-46 in December.
"We were outworked and out hustled most of the night," said coach Rick Kehoe following the contest.
Hopefully that will not be the case today. For with only two more regular season games remaining, the girls need to begin to generate an upturn to carry into the post season playoffs.
Kehoe will continue to rotate eight players with Brianna Pfremmer in the post backed by Kelsey Nelson, Liz Judkins and Ashley Erickson on the wings backed y Ashley Hirt and Lexi Gauwitz and Megan Larson outside backed by Meg Claypool.
Pfremmer was held to four points at TRF, again plagued by early foul problems and eventually leaving with five personals.
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Her inside scoring punch is badly needed if the team is going to prevail today. She has missed double figures only four times all season.
Erickson and Larson each hit 14 at Thief River, a trend Kehoe hopes will continue.
Bemidji beat Apollo 62-45 last winter with Judkins and Brittany Mayclin netting 15 and Gauwitz 11.
The B Team is 10-11 and the C Team 15-0.
Boys underdogs
The boys will need help to slay the dragon today.
Apollo is 15-4 and shares the CLC lead with Rocori at 11-1.
The Eagles lost two of their first three starts, one to Moorhead, but have lost only twice in their last 13 to Hopkins and Willmar.
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They take a 10-game winning string into action today led by their inside-outside tandem of Seth Noreen and Preston Whitaker, Whitaker headed to Mankato next year for more basketball.
The Eagles won last year's game 59-39 with Noreen hitting 18 and Whitaker 17, The Jacks played without Nate Daniels, out with a sprained ankle.
Coach Jeff Brown will go with Alex Muller, Andrew Hengel, the Baker twins Drew and Tanner and Doug Bender at the start with Chris Marty, David Sand, Jeff Schaper, Mike Erpelding and Avery Bretschneider seeing extended service off the bench.
The B Team takes a 5-17 record and the C Team 7-10 into their openers. The varsity is also 5-17.
