FIELD TWP- The North Woods boys basketball team scored a tough road win against Fond du Lac on Tuesday, bouncing back from a rough and tumble home loss to Mt. Iron-Buhl last Friday.
North Woods had all they could handle on the hardwoods at Fond du Lac. Louis Panichi and Luke Will got the Grizzlies off to a good start before Jonah Burnett caught fire and hit for 17 first-half points. Despite Burnett’s performance, the Ojibwe led at the half 39-37. The Grizzlies second-half comeback was punctuated by a pair of triples from Will, two by Talen Jarshaw, and one from Panichi. North Woods held off a late Fond du Lac charge with the help of a bizarre triple technical foul call, one on the Grizzlies and two on the Ojiwbe that resulted in a player ejection.
“I didn’t even see what happened,” North Woods Head Coach Andrew Jugovich said. “Apparently Keenan (Whitney) had come from behind and laid out a kid when they were going on a fast break.” Whitney was whistled for a technical, but Jugovich said the Fond du Lac player lost his composure and was hit with a pair of technicals. Instead of the Ojibwe having the ball with momentum and the chance to trim the lead, Panichi hit three of four free throws to put the Grizzlies up by seven. North Woods was able to close with a strong finish and an 88-76 win.
Burnett finished with 31 points, while Panichi canned 22, Will dropped in 17, and Jarshaw had 10.
“It wasn’t the game that we really thought we were capable of, especially being down at halftime,” Jugovich said. “Our boys need to take better care of the ball. It’s just something we have to keep imprinting on the boys’ minds that they have to take care of the ball or otherwise we are not going to be winning.”
Mt. Iron-Buhl
The Grizzlies got off to a rough start against MIB, turning the ball over on three of their first four possessions, foreshadowing a problem that would dog them throughout the game. MIB led early, but three-balls on consecutive trips down the court by Keenan Whitney and Louie Panichi gave the Grizzlies a short-lived 26-25 lead. MIB responded with a run that gave them a 44-35 advantage, their biggest of the half, but the Grizzlies managed to keep pace with Jonah Burnett and Luke Will scoring four points each in an 8-2 run to close out the half and pull North Woods to within 46-43 at the break.
“Going into the locker room, we said hey, for how poor we have played we’re within three,” Jugovich said. “That shows what kind of team we’re capable of being. Even with all of our turnovers we managed to keep within three.”
North Woods opened the second half slowly as MIB built an eight-point lead, but a deuce by Burnett and a triple by Panichi sandwiched around an MIB score cut the deficit to five at 57-52.
That’s as close as the Grizzlies would get, as the Rangers went on a decisive 19-4 run, connecting on four threes as they blew out to a 20-point edge at 76-56 with just over ten minutes remaining.
“The boys just seemed out of sync – I’m not sure exactly what was going on, but it wasn’t like how we were in the beginning of the year, there wasn’t as much vocality on the floor.”
The Grizzlies gamely fought back with Will, Panichi, Burnett, Evan Kajala and Kalvyn Benner all hitting big shots to pull back within nine at 81-72 with 7:28 left to play. But the Grizzlies came up empty in their next eight trips down the floor, and while MIB did little to capitalize on the drought, the Grizzlies’ momentum fizzled out. North Woods never seriously threatened again as the Rangers closed out a 95-80 win.
The Grizzlies were whistled for 20 fouls in the game, leading to a big disparity at the free throw line, where MIB was 16-of-25 and North Woods was six-of-11. North Woods had 24 turnovers that the Rangers converted into 25 points, 15 more than the Grizzlies made off 14 MIB turnovers.
Burnett scored 23 to lead North Woods, with Will and Panichi each chipping in 16 in the loss.
The Grizzlies were scheduled to take the home court on Friday against Kelliher/Northome before facing off against the state’s No. 1 team in Class A, Cherry, on Monday at home.