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CLOQUET — Brock Hurst absorbed a foul as he muscled his way to the bucket and finished at the rim.
Barnum’s 6-foot-7 senior went to the line and completed the old-fashioned three-point play to give his Bombers a 33-30 lead over Cloquet with just over four minutes to play in the first half.
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It was part of Barnum’s staggering 25-0 run that spanned the final six minutes of the opening half and first couple of minutes of the second frame. The Bombers rode their massive run to an 82-51 victory, their sixth through the first seven games this season.
“I think defense played a big part in that run,” Barnum senior Julian Beckstrand said. “It was a team effort. We played with more energy defensively, and that fed into our offense. We started getting stops, and that’s how we started scoring.”
Barnum and Cloquet competed in a tight, back-and-forth game through the opening 10 minutes Tuesday evening, Dec. 23. There were more than a half-dozen lead changes in the first half, but when Barnum started to click, Cloquet (2-4) struggled to find answers.
Bombers head coach Rich Newman, who was inducted into the Minnesota High School Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame this fall, said the massive scoring run that swung the game was a byproduct of making smart plays at the right time.
“We finally started playing basketball,” Newman said while smiling. “We quit turning it over and got the right guys the basketball at the right time.”
Part of Barnum’s advantage against Cloquet was that nearly every player on the floor was the ‘right guy.’ The Bombers had four players in double figures Tuesday night; Evan Mundell had 14, Landon Bigelow tallied 10, Beckstrand finished with 13 and Hurst poured in a team-high 16.
Whether it was Beckstrand getting downhill or Hurst dominating in the paint as an old-school center, Barnum always had an answer. The Bombers have nine seniors this fall, which makes it one of their more veteran rosters in recent memory.
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“It’s really good that we have a lot of players with experience,” Hurst said. “Having nine seniors, that definitely helps. We’ve got a couple of sophomores coming up, too, who have been really good and have a lot of experience already.”
Barnum is coming off a 2024-25 campaign in which it finished 18-9 and won a playoff opener at home before falling in the Section 7AA quarterfinals. The program returns three starters from that team a year ago — Hurst, Beckstrand and sophomore guard Patrick Poirier.
Newman said all three will be vital to any success his Bombers have this year, but it often starts with Hurst in the paint. Whether he’s grabbing rebounds, slamming home dunks or kicking out to open shooters, he has been — and will continue to be — vital to success.
“It’s size that we’ve never had, and it’s nice,” Newman said. “He’s physical, plays pretty good defense and has good feet. He has some post moves, too. We definitely want to go inside-out, so we make sure he gets touches.”
Barnum’s guards have handled most of the perimeter shooting, but senior forward Evan Mundell has emerged as a weapon. He hit a trio of 3-pointers against the Lumberjacks and has helped stretch the floor, which gives Hurst even more room to operate on the block.
“That shooting is something we expect from him, and this was the best game he’s played this year,” Newman said. “He’s one of those kids who has worked a lot on — he knew he wasn’t the fastest or tallest guy, but he made himself a shooter, and we needed that.”
The depth, versatility and experience has spurred Barnum’s 6-1 start to the season, with the lone loss coming at the hands of Deer River, a program that went 26-3 last year and finished runner-up to Cherry in the Section 7A title game.
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While Newman acknowledged that there is a lot to improve on moving forward, he’s been encouraged by a strong start to the season, particularly defensively, which has him setting lofty goals for his Bombers this year.
“We want to be the best we can be come tournament time,” Newman said. “We want to improve and compete at a high level because we’ve got high expectations.”
Hurst and Beckstrand agreed wholeheartedly. They, almost simultaneously, said that Newman expects a lot out of them, but they’ve embraced the high expectations and want to compete at the highest level.
“We want to have a good regular season, but that’s not what will define your season,” Beckstrand said. “We want to go on a big playoff push. That’s where we really want to go on a run.”
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