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North Woods defeats Nashwauk-Keewatin

Grizzlies headed to Section 7A semifinals

Tom Klein
Posted 2/28/16

HIBBING – The top-seeded Grizzlies will advance to the Section 7A semifinals on Thursday after toppling Nashwauk-Keewatin, 78-53, in Saturday’s quarterfinals at the Hibbing Memorial Arena.

George Bibeau and Darnell …

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North Woods defeats Nashwauk-Keewatin

Grizzlies headed to Section 7A semifinals

Posted

HIBBING – The top-seeded Grizzlies will advance to the Section 7A semifinals on Thursday after toppling Nashwauk-Keewatin, 78-53, in Saturday’s quarterfinals at the Hibbing Memorial Arena.

George Bibeau and Darnell Goggleye fired up North Woods’s offense, scoring 19 and 18 points, respectively.

Cade Goggleye, who finished the night with 14 points, and Garett Snidarich, who dumped in 10, also helped lead their squad to victory. Overall, eight different players put points on the board for North Woods.

“We’ve got a lot of weapons,” said Grizzlies Head Coach Will Kleppe. “We had a lot of guys scoring and it worked out good for us.”

The Spartans put up a good fight, but struggled at times against North Woods’ relentless defense.

“Our press is not going to give us a steal every time,” Kleppe said. “But it puts enough pressure on them that every third or fourth time we’re going to get a little flurry of scoring against them.”

At the same time, Kleppe complimented the Spartans, who came out with a game plan and played hard, keeping pace with the Grizzlies in the game’s opening minutes.

“They are no pushover,” said Kleppe. “They are a 21-win team and that’s nothing to scoff at.”

But the Grizzlies started to put some distance between themselves and their opponent with shots outside the arc. Darnell Goggleye garnered three treys, while Cade Goggleye and Spencer Viita each notched two.

At the half, North Woods led 49-30 and outscored the Spartans, 29-23, in the second half to secure the win.

The Spartans’ Kaleb Pelkey emerged as his team’s leading scorer, scoring a game-high 20 points. Mark Cobb added 10 while Zach Brantner chipped in nine.

The Grizzlies will square off against Silver Bay, who defeated Northland in a nail-biter. The game went into overtime with the score tied at 59-59. Although the Eagles scored first, Michael Fischer’s three-pointer clinched the win for the Mariners with the final score 67-64.

The semifinal between North Woods and Silver Bay begins at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday. Should the Grizzlies win, they would advance to the championship round on Saturday at 7 p.m.

Grizzlies, North Woods, basketball