DULUTH- Ely sophomore guard Grace LaTourell has hit countless game-winning free throws in practice, a mind game she plays to sharpen her focus and hone her skills.
But on Saturday, the stakes in the 7A Sectional tournament were real. With her sixth-seeded Timberwolves tied with third-seeded South Ridge 60-60 with two minutes to play, LaTourell was hammered on a three-point shot and stepped to the charity stripe with the game in the balance.
“It was very nerve wracking but in practice I think as if I’m shooting to win the game, so then that’s just what I thought,” LaTourell said.
She made all three to give the Wolves their first lead of the game and hit six more down the stretch to cap a stunning 17-point second-half comeback for the shocking 69-63 upset over the Panthers.
“Grace hit some of the most clutch pressure free throws at the end,” Ely Head Coach Max Gantt said.
Ely was down 43-28 at the half to a team that had beaten them by 22 only eight days before, but Gantt knew the game was still winnable.
“We haven’t started well against them any of the times we played them,” Gantt said. “But if we kept the game close enough, and if we made a run, it was going to be fine. And, man, we just hit a lot of shots that second half, we hit a lot of threes. We took care of the ball, and when we needed stops, we got them.”
The first key three came right after South Ridge dropped a trey to go up 48-31. Ely’s Madeline Perry immediately answered with a triple for the Wolves, and the comeback was on. The Wolves neutralized the Panthers’ inside game with a zone defense that pushed shots to the perimeter, shots that weren’t finding the mark. LaTourell and Madeline Kallberg dropped in treys, Perry added three on a bucket and one, and a big three-ball by Sarah Visser at the 7:35 mark cut the deficit to single digits at 55-48.
Gantt threw another wrinkle at the Panthers by going to a full court press, throwing South Ridge even more out of sync. Threes by LaTourell and Perry got Ely to within two, and a 14-foot jumper by Madison Rohr brought Ely all the way back, knotting the score at 60-60 with 3:40 left to play.
“We played that a lot during the year, that one-two-two pressure, and it just swung the momentum,” Gantt said. “We worked really hard on it and we got some easy shots off of it.”
Neither team scored on the next five possessions, and as an errant Ely shot headed out of bounds, it looked as if the Wolves had squandered another opportunity. But Visser made a tremendous lunge over the end line to flip the ball back to one of her fellow players, and Gantt called time out with 2:12 remaining, setting up LaTourell’s three-point try and go-ahead free throws.
After Ely went up 65-60 on a pair of LaTourell charities, Rohr got a key stop at midcourt, forcing a Panthers player into a traveling violation. The game was effectively over with 24 seconds left when LaTourell hit two more free throws, giving Ely a three-possession 68-61 lead. LaTourell answered a quick South Ridge deuce by hitting the front end of a one-and-one, and a desperation heave by South Ridge wasn’t close, clinching the upset win for Ely.
“Every girl who checked in, they worked their butt off on defense, they took care of the ball better the second half, and no one was afraid to take their shot,” Gantt said. “It was awesome. Madeline Perry had a great second half. She wanted the basketball and we had to run sets to get it to her. She really wanted it after missing last year playing in a playoff game and scoring it like she did was amazing.”
Perry pumped in 11 of her 17 points in the second half, four fewer than LaTourell’s team-leading 21 points. Sarah Visser also hit double-digits with 14.
The Wolves earned a return trip to Duluth and a semifinal matchup against second-seeded Cromwell-Wright, scheduled to be played Wednesday at UMD’s Romano Gym. “We need to keep ourselves in the game and we’ll see if we can sneak out a victory,” said Gantt just ahead of the game, set to be played just after the Timberjay’s weekly deadline. “We can play with them, but we have to take care of the ball, play decent defense and knock down a couple threes. The girls are pumped for this opportunity, and we have earned it.”
Ely dumps Hill City
In the opening round of the Section 7A playoffs in Ely last week, the Wolves advanced on the strength of an 84-21 rout over Hill City. “Our pressure really gave them some trouble,” said Gantt. “We had 36 steals as a team and played really good man defense in the half-court.”
The Wolves also dominated the posts, leaving little for the Hornets to work with. “It was fun to be able to host a playoff game and put on such a performance,” said Gantt.
Perry posted another strong performance, hitting 75 percent of her shots on her way to 24 points. Grace LaTourell added 17 points and tallied nine steals and seven assists. Madeline Kallberg added 13 points, Sarah Visser posted 11 points and five steals, while Madison Rohr added nine points.