HIBBING — It wasn’t supposed to end this way, but Hibbing became Heartbreak City on Saturday for the fifth-seeded Ely boys in a quarterfinal sectional matchup against No. 4 Barnum with a 67-66 season-ending loss.
After a stellar first-half performance by Drew Johnson and strong overall team play in the second half, the Wolves appeared poised to advance after breaking a 45-45 tie with a 13-3 run to hold a 58-48 edge with 3:38 remaining.
But in a stunning reversal fueled by a ferocious full court press and clutch three-point shooting, the Bombers came roaring back to knot the score at 62-62 with 1:40 left. Wyatt Tedrick and Arturo Cameron both went one-for-two at the free throw line to give Ely a 64-62 edge, but Barnum connected on a trey to go up 65-64. After an Ely time-out, the Wolves turned the ball over on a shot clock violation with 13 seconds to play.
The Wolves’ earlier restraint in fouling came back to haunt them, as they had to commit four consecutive fouls and burn up seven seconds on the clock, doing it to put Barnum in the one-and-one with 5.7 seconds remaining. The Bombers’ Logan Charboneau drained both charities, setting up the possibility of overtime if the Wolves could connect on a last-second three-pointer. Head Coach Tom McDonald set up an inbounds pass from Grant Chittum to Johnson near the midcourt line, and the senior got off a shot at the arc just before the buzzer that fell through. One official signaled a three-pointer and a brief celebration by Ely ensued, but the officials delivered a dagger when they determined correctly that Johnson had a foot over the line when he took the shot, resulting in only a two-pointer and a crushing one-point loss.
With Barnum holding a big height advantage down low, Johnson was the go-to player for Ely in the first half from three-point range, connecting on six of nine trifectas as the Wolves took a 28-24 lead into the locker room. Ely amped up the effort to score inside in the second half after Jack Davies got them started with consecutive three-balls. Arturo hit a pair of critical buckets inside to keep Ely in the lead at 45-42 and 49-48, helping to power the run that gave the Wolves their ten-point lead.
Johnson led the Wolves in scoring with 27 points and added 10 rebounds for a double-double. Davies was next on the list with 21 points, and Cameron scored 10.
McDonald was naturally disappointed with the outcome.
“We played so beautiful for 31 minutes with four turnovers in that span, and had five turnovers in the last five minutes,” he said. “We panicked with the press and never really recovered from it. We played good, aggressive defense in the second half, but not aggressive enough to commit enough fouls to put them in the bonus. Jack picked things up for us in the second half and things were looking good for us until that final five minutes.”
Johnson’s play earned praise from McDonald.
“Drew hit six of his first nine threes and absolutely led us in the first half,” he said. “He shot well late in the season and it was great to see him get us off to such a great start.”
The Wolves advanced to the quarterfinal game with a decisive first round win over Fond du Lac, 78-50. Ely ended the season with a record of 21-8.
“It was a disappointing ending to an excellent season,” McDonald said. “I thought this team really played well together and were competitive in almost every game. We will definitely miss our three seniors and the returning players will need to spend some time in the offseason to have the skills to replace Drew, Jack, and Tyler (Fritz).”