ELY- Anyone expecting a cakewalk for North Woods as they took on Ely on Monday must have forgotten how tenaciously the Wolves defend their home court when the Grizzlies come to town.
A stout defensive effort by the Wolves took away the Grizzlies’ potent transition game and kept Ely within striking distance until a late North Woods run put the game away for a 71-53 win.
Ely was down just five at the half, 30-25, and a Jack Davies three-ball with 5:39 left in the game electrified the home fans and had the Wolves primed for a comeback, down 49-42.
But the Grizzlies’ Louie Panichi answered with a triple, Jonah Burnett scored a pair of buckets down low, and Talen Jarshaw drained a three-ball in a lightning-fast 10-0 run that suddenly had North Woods up by 17, 59-42. Burnett and Panichi, with two more threes, held the Wolves at bay down the stretch for the win.
Caid Chittum put the Wolves on the board first with a deuce, and the only point the Grizzlies could muster in the game’s first five minutes was a Panichi free throw. Ely wasn’t much better, adding only a hoop by Drew Johnson before Burnett finally broke the ice for North Woods with a bucket at the 12:55 mark. A minute later the Grizzlies took a 6-4 lead when Aidan Hartway took an inbounds pass from Luke Will and hit a three from the top of the key. North Woods built the lead to nine, but Davies halted the Grizzlies’ roll with a basket and three free throws, making the score 17-13. When an old-fashioned three-point play by Will threatened to spark a Grizzlies run at 27-19, the Wolves hung tough, getting a three-ball from Wyatt Tedrick and a bucket from Leo McKrahl in the final minute of the half to stay close.
The Wolves closed the gap to just three on a Tedrick jumper to open the second half, and Chittum helped Ely keep pace with a pair of buckets down low. But Panichi canned a pull-up trey, and after a Tedrick charity the Wolves went stone cold for the next six-and-a-half minutes, allowing the Grizzlies to build a 43-32 cushion. Johnson ended the Ely drought with a three-ball at the 9:07 mark, but the Grizzlies had enough of an edge to keep the Wolves at arm’s length until the decisive run that put the game away.
Burnett led the charge for the Grizzlies with 26 points, and Panichi scored 20 points while connecting on five trifectas. Davies topped the charts for Ely with 19, and Chittum dropped in 15.
“It’s hard to come up here and play,” said Grizzlies Head Coach Andrew Jugovich. “They outworked us the first half, and being up five was a blessing. But the boys persevered and kept working through all the foul trouble – I give credit to them. It was fun.”
Jugovich said contributions from his bench were key in pulling this one out.
“Guys off the bench came up big,” he said. “Keenan’s (Whitney) defense, he really picked it up. And Evan (Kajala) on the boards, he was outjumping all of them tonight. He proved that he wants the minutes, and he did a great job today on the boards and finishing at the rim.”
Ely Head Coach Tom McDonald was proud of his team’s effort in the loss.
“I thought we battled really well with them,” he said. “They kind of pulled away and we didn’t shoot the ball well late and we had some untimely turnovers, but I thought we competed well against a really good team.”
McDonald said the key to slowing down the Grizzlies was his team’s ball-handling. The Wolves limited their turnovers and hustled down the court on defense to thwart the North Woods transition game.
“Our kids work really hard on defense,” McDonald said. “Sometimes they’re not very talented on the offensive end – we have our limitations there. But we always worked hard out there and that kept us in the game.”
With the win, the Grizzlies moved to 21-4 on the season and carry an 11-game winning streak into a big Friday home finale against Deer River. Ely closes out the regular season on Friday as well with a home contest against Fond du Lac. Seedings and opening round schedules for the 7A Sectional tournament will be posted this weekend on the Timberjay’s website and Facebook page.