DULUTH - As far as Brendan Parson was concerned, it was a normal game.

Normal warmup, normal feel. Even the score wasn’t much of a concern.

Just find an open shot and let it go.

And swish. Again. And again ... and again.

All in all, the North Woods junior hit 6-of-9 three-point attempts in Friday’s Section 7A championship game.

Parson finished the night with 21 points, helping lead the Grizzlies to a 70-55 win over Mountain Iron-Buhl in Duluth.

“I warmed up the same - it didn’t feel any better or worse than usual,” Parson said. “I knew it was going to be a big game and I was hopeful our team would shoot well.

“We all feel capable of scoring on any given night. Fortunately for us we all shot well.”

Perhaps Parson’s biggest three, and the most important of the Grizzlies’ season, came two minutes into the second half.

Mountain Iron-Buhl opened the half on a short 4-0 run, pulling within a point at 30-29.

Then, Parson knocked down a three to extend the gap back to four and the game was never within a possession again.

“I didn’t even know what the score was at halftime,” Parson said. “We have been a second half team all year, so I wasn’t too rattled by their run.”

Parson sank two more threes down the stretch, helping the Grizzlies pull away with the section title.

“I think his statistics speak for themselves in the championship game,” North Woods head coach Will Kleppe said. “Shooting 6-for-9 for threes in that atmosphere proves he can produce in big games.”

When the Grizzlies were struggling to score at the same level down the stretch of the regular season as they had earlier in the year, Kleppe’s message to his shooters remained the same: keep shooting.

And for good reason, especially in Parson’s case.

A remarkably consistent scorer, Parson has now reached double figures in 25 of the team’s 29 games while maintaining a shooting percentage of 36 percent from three-point range, 56 percent from inside the arc and 79 percent from the free-throw line.

On top of that, he excels as a passer with 3.7 assists a night and on the defensive end with 3.5 steals per game.

“Brendan is a very unselfish player,” Kleppe said. “He doesn’t waste any possessions and we can count on him to take high percentage shots. He works hard on his game and we are confident in him to step up and score when we need him. He is a team leader in hustle and that is what carries our team.”

Now, thanks in large part to Parson’s clutch shooting, North Woods is off to state for the first time in school history.

“I was nervous at the end of the game, but as the horn sounded I couldn’t have been more happy for us as a team, because we did this together,” Parson said.