FIELD TWP- The Ely girls basketball team broke open a close game at North Woods with a strong second half that subdued the Grizzlies 66-40.
The Wolves grabbed an early 5-0 lead on a pair of Audrey Kallberg free throws and a Zoe Mackenzie three-ball before North Woods got on the board with River Cheney dropping one in from the charity stripe. From that point forward the first half was a tight battle, with Ely holding onto the lead. The Wolves went up 25-18 on a pair of Sarah Visser charities, but North Woods got back to within two on a basket by Talise Goodsky and a deep trey by Helen Koch. The Wolves extended the lead to six, 29-23, at the half.
Ely got off to a fast start in the second stanza with Clare Thomas connecting on a bucket and one to push the lead to 39-27. Solid defensive pressure by the Wolves kept the Grizzlies off-balance as Ely’s lead continued to mount. A trey by Grace LaTourell and a deuce by Amelia Penke gave the Wolves an insurmountable 20-point advantage with just over three minutes to play, and with the reserves on the floor Ely’s Maija Mattson tallied the Wolves’ final basket in the 66-40 victory.
LaTourell provided the largest chunk of Ely’s firepower, draining 24 points while dishing out six assists and collecting five steals. Visser also reached double figures with 13 points, and Ely got scores from seven different players. Cheney was the lone Grizzly in double figures with 13 points.
“Once we started finishing, played a little better defense, and finally knocked down some shots from three and down the lane it was a cleaner half in the second half for us,” Ely Head Coach Max Gantt said. “If we just move it and take care of it, good things happen.”
Gantt said he was particularly pleased with the team’s defensive effort.
“We will play multiple defenses, not just man-to-man, and while we work hard in the man we want to play other things,” Gantt said. “They like defense – they get after each other in practice which make them all better.
For North Woods Head Coach Liz Cheney, it was another disappointing loss in a losing streak to the Wolves that dates back to 2019.
“It was like the tale of two teams tonight,” Cheney said. “We’ve come back from bigger deficits at halftime, but we just were a completely different team in the second half than we were in the first. We just came out flat and even played slower than we did in the first half, and that made all the difference.”
The first half demonstrated that the Grizzlies can play with the Wolves talent wise, but getting over the hump and winning has become a mental hurdle, Cheney said.
“Sometimes I think we mentally beat ourselves against teams like Chisholm, Floodwood, and Ely,” she said. “We have to get a win one of these times to convince the girls they can do it.”
The Grizzlies will get another shot at notching a win against the Wolves this season when the teams square off again in Ely on Feb. 15.