AURORA- The North Woods boys amped up the defensive heat on Friday, turning a close game at Mesabi East into a rout, as the Grizzlies improved to 13-9 on the season with a 90-49 win.
It’s been a rough year for the Giants, who have only two wins under their belt and are no strangers to blowout losses, but they gave the Grizzlies a good test throughout much of the first half. After North Woods streaked to a 21-11 lead, fueled by an early 10-point outburst by Brenden Chiabotti, the Grizzlies suddenly went cold, and the Giants took advantage. A solid 12-0 run had the Grizzlies on their heels, suddenly trailing 23-21. A trey by Jared Chiabotti put the Grizzles back up one, and after Mesabi East regained the lead on a bucket, Brendan Chiabotti responded with a triple to put North Woods ahead for good. That’s when the Grizzlies cranked up the defensive pressure and converted turnovers into points in an 11-0 run to close out the half, taking a 43-31 lead to the locker room.
“I don’t know what it’s been about the past few games with us giving up a good amount of points in the first half,” Grizzlies Head Coach Andrew Jugovich said. “But it really came down to the boys working hard and making adjustments when our press wasn’t working. We had to go to man, and man worked well.”
Those adjustments paid even greater dividends in the second half, with the Grizzlies holding the Giants to just 18 points while piling up 47 points at a pace they found more to their liking.
“Our guys are fast, athletic, and they want to run and jump,” Jugovich said. “They wanted to slow us down, and in the first half we were pretty stagnant. But once we figured it out, everything worked our way.”
It was another contest where Jugovich mixed up his lineups, and he was pleased with the contributions he got from the guys coming off the bench.
“Having Talen (Jarshaw) come back has been amazing,” Jugovich said. “He played an amazing second half. Eli (Smith), Kaden (Ratai) and Luke (Will), whoever’s playing that big man spot, they’ve been doing very well setting screens and getting rebounds. It’s not necessarily them developing but just really stepping up and showing what they can do.”
Brenden Chiabotti had another big game for the Grizzlies, leading all scorers with 33 points. Jonah Burnett continues to be an offensive stalwart, hitting for 18 on the night. Jared Chiabotti also reached double figures with 15.
The Grizzlies had back-to-back home games on Thursday and Friday this week, taking on Rock Ridge and then Chisholm. North Woods will finish the regular season on the road with games at Carlton next Tuesday and Deer River next Friday.