North America maintains lead at Continental Cup

LAS VEGAS — Calgary’s Kevin Koe has Team North America in the lead at the halfway point of the 2017 Continental Cup.

Koe put together a 6-3 victory over Team World’s Rasmus Stjerne of Denmark. It was the lone North American win on Friday night in traditional team play.

“You don’t want to ever lose to Team World, so it’s nice to put a couple good games together and hopefully it’s the start of something good for us to get on a roll,” said Brent Laing, who plays second for Koe.

“We know we’re still capable, we just haven’t played our best very often this year. We know what we have to do to get better and we’re doing those things.”

Team World prevailed in the other men’s game, with Norway’s Thomas Ulsrud beating Heath McCormick of the United Staes 7-3, while the other game was halved — Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg stole a point in the eighth and final end to pull out a 6-6 tie with Team North America’s Jennifer Jones of Winnipeg.

Team North America maintained its narrow 10-8 lead in the four-day competition in which the first team to surpass the 30.5-point mark takes home the Continental Cup.

Jones had an open hit for a win against Hasselborg in her draw but rolled out her shooter to gift a half-point to Team World.

The Continental Cup continues today with the final two rounds of traditional team play, as well as mixed doubles play.