REGIONAL — The North Woods girls couldn’t overcome a slow start last week at Two Harbors, falling to the Agates 57-41.
The Agates never trailed, taking advantage of a game-opening cold spell by the Grizzlies to mount a 14-0 advantage. The Grizzlies didn’t hit a shot until Brynn Chosa scored on a putback at the 8:16 mark, ending a drought of nearly 10 minutes. With the lid finally off the basket, the Grizzlies fought their way back into the game with an 11-2 run, keyed by the hot hand of Chosa, who had three triples to narrow the Agates’ lead to 16-13 with 4:34 left in the half. But North Woods got only one more basket, a two-pointer in the lane by Chosa, before the break as Two Harbors took a 27-15 lead into the locker room.
Zoey Burckhardt got the Grizzlies comeback train on track early in the second half with a three-pointer, then followed that with a conventional deuce and charity three-point play to trim the lead to 28-21. A Chosa putback drew the Grizzlies to within five, 28-23, with 16 minutes left in the game. The well went dry for North Woods for another six minutes, letting the Agates build the lead back to double digits at 36-23. There would be no Grizzlies’ rally this time, as Two Harbors coasted from there to the 16-point win.
The Grizzlies hit just 14 shots from the floor on 21 percent shooting. Nine of those shots came from Chosa, who hit five treys and tallied 28 points, representing 68 percent of the Grizzlies’ total points. North Woods won the turnover battle 24-22, but couldn’t capitalize, scoring just nine points off the miscues.
With the loss, the Grizzlies fell to 1-4 on the season. They were scheduled to host Ely on Thursday, a team that has also struggled to find its footing with an identical 1-4 record. North Woods headed into the winter break with a home matchup against South Ridge the following night.