FIELD TWP – The North Woods boys looked like they were on their way to a win against Class AA Greenway/Nashwauk-Keewatin at home on Friday, but a disastrous second-half scoring slump gave the Titans the opening they needed to escape with a narrow 58-56 victory.
The Grizzlies got off to a strong start in this one, courtesy of four buckets by Cedar Holman, scores on steals by Sawyer Glass and Eli Sheffer, and a drive in the lane for a score by Andrew Hartway to grab an early 14-4 lead. North Woods gave almost all of that back as GNK pulled to within 21-20, but TaySean Boshey-Wilkerson drained a trey to give the Grizzlies a four-point cushion. A late push sent the teams to the locker rooms with the Grizzlies leading 38-28 at the half.
Glass got the Grizzlies rolling in the second half with a triple to up the lead to 11 at 41-30. But that wasn’t a sign of things to come, as North Woods could barely buy a hoop in a 20-4 Titans run that flipped the game to GNK’s advantage, 50-45 with about six minutes to play. North Woods had life with a minute to play on a Sheffer putback and the GNK lead at just two, 55-53. A huge trifecta by Boshey-Wilkerson with 22 second left cut the margin to one at 57-56. The Titans made one of two free throws with 13 seconds on the clock, and trailing 58-56 the Grizzlies committed a disastrous turnover.
They got one more chance for the win after a steal and a pass to Gage Aune for an NBA-range desperation three-ball with four tenths of a second left, but the shot didn’t fall.
It was a tale of what might have been for the Grizzlies, who had plenty of opportunities to reverse the outcome of this one. With the second half slump, North Woods shot just 30 percent from the field, connecting on 16 of 50 shots taken from two-point range. The Grizzlies also had a tough time at the free throw line, where there were three-of-11 for 27 percent.
Holman led the team in scoring with 16, followed closely by Boshey-Wilkerson with 14.
The boys were at home again on Monday to take on 8-7 McGregor. The Grizzlies never led in this one as the Mercuries built a 22-11 lead midway through the first half and went into halftime with a 39-27 lead. The Grizzlies made a valiant effort to climb back into the game in the second half, steadily chipping away at the lead until a Holman charity at the 7:21 mark trimmed the deficit to just one at 53-52. But North Woods scored just two points over the next four minutes as the Mercuries built the lead back up to 62-54, and the visitors held off the Grizzlies down the stretch for a 69-59 win.
Cook County
A road trip to Cook County was on tap on Tuesday, and the host Vikings took control of the game at around the ten-minute mark when they started to turn a 12-8 lead into a commanding 42-24 halftime lead. The Grizzlies had no answers in the second half as the Vikings built the lead as high as 30 points before coasting to a 75-52 win. Boshey-Wilkerson and Omari Mohamed were the only Grizzlies in double figures with ten each.The 2-17 Grizzlies last won on Dec. 15.