Sports Notebook, Monday

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Prep Sports

Hermantown’s young, rebuilding boys basketball team showed strong development in road losses last week against Mounds View and Grand Rapids.

“Mounds View is a really strong 4A program,” Hawks coach Andy Fenske said of the 77-33 loss. “We challenge ourselves to those tough games so we know what it's like to play at a higher level and, despite the score, there were a lot of upsides to it.”

Hermantown battled the Thunderhawks to the final horn in a 70-58 loss.

“We found a drive that gave us chances down the stretch, however, we are hopefully finding out that we can't wait until late game to kick it into overdrive,” Fenske said of the Grand Rapids loss.

The Hawks will next visit nonconference St. Francis (5-14) on Tuesday night before playing host to St. Paul Harding (10-8) to begin a three-game homestand on Friday at 6 p.m.

“St. Francis has a new coach so you never know what to truly expect when a program begins to take on a new identity,” said Fenske. “Harding is a team that plays a tough schedule night in and night out, so no easy games on their schedule in the slightest.”

Fenske his team is starting to play longer stretches of high-quality basketball, which bodes well for the future.

“We just need to continue to get those stretches for longer durations and more frequently in games,” he said.