INTERNATIONAL FALLS- The North Woods boys got back on the winning track Tuesday by rocking International Falls 69-33 on the Broncos’ home court, bouncing back from an 89-70 home loss to Littlefork-Big Falls on Friday.
Head Coach Andrew Jugovich described the tilt against the Broncos as “a tale of two halves, first half filled with turnovers and poor effort, while the second half was tight defense, better ball movement, and getting down the court fast.”
Louie Panichi led the team in scoring with 17, and Talen Jarshaw scored 14.
The Vikings of L-BF proved to be a tough matchup for the Grizzlies on Friday, although the home team kept pace in the early going. North Woods trailed 4-0 before Louie Panichi got the Grizzlies on the board with a deuce four minutes into the game. Three balls by Panichi and Kalvyn Benner kept the Grizzlies close at 11-10. But the Vikings opened up some distance from there, going up by ten at 24-14 as the Grizzlies ran into problems attacking the L-BF defense. The Vikings kept the pressure on and were up by 18 at the break, 40-22.
In the second half, the best the Grizzlies could do was keep pace. North Woods was down by as many as 25 points. Each time it looked as though the Grizzlies would get a boost from a three-ball or a big play under the bucket, the Vikings snuffed out any hope of a rally with big scores of their own. North Woods did cut the final margin to under 20, something of little consolation in the 89-70 loss.
Statistics for the L-BF contest were not available by press time. North Woods had a home game scheduled for Friday against Mesabi East, followed by a Tuesday road trip to Hill City.