FIELD TWP- A standing-room-only crowd turned out at North Woods School on Monday to watch the Grizzlies take on the top-ranked Tigers from Cherry, and they got to see a bit of history as Cherry showed why they’re one of the favorites for this year’s state crown with a 99-57 win.
Tigers fans were there in force to cheer on star guard Isaac Asuma as he eclipsed 3,000 career points midway through the first half. Play was stopped as the senior was awarded the milestone-breaking game ball, and the crowd roared its approval. Asuma was the third-ranked player in the state last year when he signed to play next season for the Minnesota Gophers, and his performance on Monday vaulted him into 15th place among all-time Minnesota boys high school scorers, with the chance to move up several more spots by the end of the season.
The Grizzlies weren’t about to let this one go without a fight, making Cherry scrape hard for their points early on. But the Grizzlies had a tough time getting on track offensively as Cherry slipped out to a 9-0 lead before Jonah Burnett got North Woods on the board with a spinning fast break layup. But that would be the only basket for the Grizzlies’ leading scorer in the first half.
With Cherry keying defensively on Burnett, the Grizzlies had to find points elsewhere to try to hang with the Tigers. A triple by Keenan Whitney and a trey and a driving deuce by Louie Panichi gave the home fans something to cheer about as Cherry extended its lead to 28-15. Asuma hit the 3,000 mark shooting in a pair of free throws to give Cherry a 38-19 advantage. North Woods had a series of productive possessions late in the half with Panichi hitting another trey and a double and Luke Will scoring three buckets, but the Tigers still extended their lead to 62-38 at the break.
Any scant hope of a North Woods rally was snuffed out immediately in the second half as the Tigers exploded for 19 points before the Grizzlies finally tallied a Panichi free throw at the 14-minute mark. Cherry went up 96-46 with just over six minutes left, but the Grizzlies finished the game on an 11-3 run to account for the 99-57 final.
While Asuma’s milestone was the highlight of the game for Cherry, the Tigers showed they aren’t a one-trick pony this season, with three players scoring higher than Asuma’s 15 points. Noah Asuma and Carson Brown tied for high score honors with 21 each, and Noah Sundquist dropped in 16.
Cherry Head Coach Jordan Christianson commented on Asuma’s milestone.
“Three thousand, that’s a ton of baskets,” he said. “He’s in elite company and he’s an elite kid overall. It’s a good milestone for him. He deserves it, he earned it.”
Cherry is a dangerous opponent not only because they have multiple weapons, but also because of their team chemistry, Christianson said.
“We lost quite a few seniors, we added a couple, so the chemistry took a little bit to get going this year. They put in a lot of work together in the summer and they practice hard together every day, and I would say the chemistry has greatly improved. All five of our guys and even our sixth and seventh guys off the bench know they’re a threat when they’re on the floor, and they’re all confident in each other to make a play. So it could be anyone’s night – we don’t need 30 from Isaac or anything like that.”
For the Grizzlies, Panichi was the scoring spark plug, hitting for 19, while Burnett was well below his season average at 13 points. Will chipped in 10. Despite the loss, North Woods Head Coach Andrew Jugovich found some positive take aways, particularly from the first half.
“We knew that it wasn’t going to necessarily go our way, but we wanted to see things that would propel us forward. Louie Panichi is an animal on offense, and Luke Will has been stepping up in a big way,” Jugovich said. “They moved the ball insanely fast, but defensively we started to rotate better and we were keeping up with them and getting rebounds. Their coach had to call two timeouts and in our book that’s a win. They’re the number one team in the state for single A and top 75, maybe even top 50 for all four classes, so they’re a phenomenal team.”
Northome-Kelliher
Northome-Kelliher came calling at North Woods last Friday, and the Grizzlies were in top form as they ran the Mustangs out of the gym with a 104-65 win.
The Grizzlies held a slim 26-23 lead when they took control with an 11-2 spurt sparked by a Panichi trey and four charities by Burnett. North Woods turned in one of its most impressive offensive streaks of the season to close out the half, scoring on 12 of its last 14 possessions to lead 67-46 at intermission.
With the Grizzlies cruising at 78-50, Talen Jarshaw got into the act with a trey and a pair of buckets sandwiched around a Burnett fast break to push the lead to 87-51. Trajan Barto canned the triple that put the Grizzlies over the century mark with a minute left to play, and a putback by TaySean Boshey-Wilkerson topped off the 104-65 smackdown.
The Grizzlies got big games out of Burnett and Panichi, with 33 and 31 points respectively, and picked up 16 from Will and 12 from Jarshaw.
“They’re a very physical and big team, but we knew they couldn’t keep up with us at the pace we play,” Jugovich said. “We just had to get them tired first, and we took advantage of that.”
The Grizzlies were scheduled to face off against Duluth Marshall on the road on Friday, then have a week off before traveling to Coleraine to take on Greenway on Feb. 2.