FIELD TWP- On a night when the North Woods girls honored their three seniors, they made sure to send them out in style with a 66-44 thrashing of Littlefork-Big Falls.
Sierra Schuster, Nevada Gauthier, and Addison Burckhardt have all been key contributors in the regular rotation of Head Coach Liz Cheney’s team, helping to keep the entire team motivated with their play and leadership in a tough rebuilding year. Coming off a loss against Ely last Thursday, the Grizzlies were determined to rebound against the Vikings.
Schuster kicked off the scoring by streaking down the lane and taking an inbounds pass for a lay up, and followed that up with a 12-foot jumper in the lane. A pair of charities by Schuster sparked a 12-0 run by the Grizzlies, with baskets by Brynn Chosa, Corra Brodeen, and Tatum Barto lifting the Grizzlies to a 16-6 lead. That was the closest the Vikings would get for the rest of the game.
As they were against Ely, the Grizzlies were at their sharpest in the first half, playing smothering defense all over the court and smartly executing plays on the offensive end. With Barto and Chosa carrying much of the scoring load, North Woods extended its lead to 25-8 on a Barto drive with 7:01 left in the half. After a short scoring drought, Brodeen got the Grizzlies back on track with a ten-foot baseline jumper, and with an eight-point flurry in the last 90 seconds of the half on baskets by Brodeen, Barto, and Zoey Burckhardt, North Woods carried a 22-point, 37-15 lead into the break.
While the scoring indicates the teams played to a 29-29 tie in the second half, in reality the Grizzlies were well in control for most of the period, taking a 32-point lead at 63-31on a layup by Addison Burckhardt with just under seven minutes to play. With the Grizzlies’ reserves seeing more playing time toward the end of the game, their shooting cooled off, giving the Vikings the opportunity to close the gap in the final minutes to account for the 66-44 final.
Barto led North Woods with 20 points, and Chosa was right on her heels with 19. Eight Grizzlies got into the scoring column.
The Grizzlies’ sixth win of the season wasn’t their largest margin of victory – that came in a 70-28 blowout of Cook County in December, but their style of play which notching their second win in the past three games is evidence of how this team has improved over the season. Half the team’s wins have come in the past six games.
It’s likely that the Grizzlies tallied their last win of the regular season against the Vikings, as their Thursday finale was a home matchup against Class AAA Hermantown. The Hawks had a 15-8 record coming into the game and North Woods was the only Class A team on their schedule.
Currently standing 12th in the section, the Grizzlies would be on the road for the first game of the Section 7 tournament, which gets underway with a play-in game between the 16th and 17th seeds on Monday, Feb. 24 before a full slate of action on Thursday, Feb. 27.