FIELD TWP- The North Woods boys basketball team is on a three-game winning streak after notching a convincing home win over Class AA Greenway and a road beatdown of Blackduck on Monday.
Against the Drakes on Monday, the only thing the Grizzlies lost was the opening tip. Louie Panichi, Jonah Burnett, and Luke Will got North Woods off to a 6-0 start, but the team really hit its stride when Talen Jarshaw scored on a fast break at the 13-minute mark. Feeding off their swarming pressure defense, the Grizzlies scored on their next six trips down the floor, getting treys from Burnett and Jarshaw and doubles from Panichi, Burnett, and Will to open up a 24-4 lead. The Drakes finally began to click on offense, but gained zero headway as North Woods took a 25-point 48-23 lead into halftime.
The Grizzlies toyed with the Drakes in the second half, intensifying their defensive effort after a Blackduck timeout to hold the Drakes to just a single basket over the final 12 minutes of the contest. Burnett had a highlight reel breakaway dunk during a 17-2 run that secured the 82-37 win.
Burnett led the Grizzlies attack with 26 points, followed by Panichi with 21 and Jarshaw with 14.
Greenway
The Grizzlies’ press was dominant in the first half against the Raiders, at one point forcing turnovers on six consecutive Greenway possessions. The Raiders had an early 10-9 lead, but a Burnett deuce and a Will three-ball ignited a massive 39-6 run to put the Grizzlies in total control at 48-15. Greenway recovered its footing to pull back to within 58-35 at the half. The scoring pace slacked off for both teams in the second half, but the Grizzlies wrapped up with a 17-6 blitz in the last 10 minutes of the game to win easily, 93-62.
North Woods had a huge edge in points off turnovers, 35-4, and took good care of the basketball, giving it up just 10 times. North Woods scored 62 of its points in the paint while going six-of-21 from three-point range.
Burnett paced the Grizzlies with 31 points, followed by Will with 23 and Panichi with 22.
Stretch run
Looking ahead, the Grizzlies are primed for a strong stretch run to finish the regular season with an increasingly tough defense and a trio of top scorers with Burnett, the state’s seventh highest scorer on the season, Panichi and Will. Ranked 25th in Class A by the Minnesota-Scores.net QRF formula, used to seed sectional playoffs, the Grizzlies have an edge over each of the nine teams remaining on their schedule. If they run the table and the cards fall right they could lock down second place in the Section 7A SS2 division, but they’ll have to get through three final tough games to do it. They’ll travel on Feb. 23 to Chisholm, always a tough environment to play in, followed by a game Feb. 26 in the hostile environment of Ely’s historic gym, where the Wolves will be eager for the chance to avenge a January loss to the Grizzlies. They’ll be back home for their finale on March 1 against Deer River, currently the Grizzlies’ highest-rated foe at 29th in the QRF. Averaging 84.9 points per game, North Woods is outscoring Deer River by 10 for the season while the Warriors have a two-point edge in defense.