ELY- When a basketball team graduates the likes of a Grace LaTourell, a Hanna Penke, and a Sarah Visser all at once, a trio that led the Ely Timberwolves to exciting sectional tourney play the past three years, it helps to have someone on the sidelines who knows all about Ely basketball tradition as this year’s squad seeks a new direction.
The Wolve have that in new head coach Tomi Cole, who inherits the reins from Max Gantt. Cole, the daughter of beloved boys’ coach Tom McDonald, was a big-time scorer for Ely in her prep career, then went on to play and coach college hoops, including a stint at the helm at then Vermilion Community College.
The new-look Wolves drew a stout test against Cromwell for their first game out of the gate on Friday, as Cole got a good look at how some of the pieces may fit together as the season progresses.
Sophomore Amelia Penke was the first Ely player to get on the board with a free throw, then followed up with a driving score in the lane as Ely trailed 5-3. The Wolves pulled into a 9-9 tie when sophomore Lydia Shultz drained a rainbow triple, the last time Ely seriously threatened the Cardinals lead.
A quick 10-2 Cromwell run aided by multiple Ely turnovers gave the Cardinals a 19-11 cushion, and the Wolves struggled to keep the game close the rest of the half. But right before the buzzer Ely got a nifty score under the bucket from sophomore Greta Lowe and a trey from junior Zoe Mackenzie, and senior Maija Mattson was fouled as time expired and dropped in a pair of charities to go into the break trailing 28-20.
The Wolves stayed within single digits of the Cardinals for most of the second half. But a pair of turnovers that led to fast break scores for Cromwell upped the lead to 44-30 with 3:43 remaining. Ely would get only a two-pointer from Shultz the rest of the way as Cromwell pulled away for a 52-32 win.
Play was stopped briefly midway through the second stanza to recognize Cromwell’s Isabella Anderson, who scored her 1,000th career point. The Wolves were effective in containing the Cardinals’ senior forward, who finished with only four points. Shannon Lund led Cromwell with 16.
Cole will likely be on the hunt for a scorer to drive the Wolves’ offense after no Ely player scored in double digits. However, Ely had a balanced attack, with Mackenzie, Lowe, and Penke each chalking up six points and Shultz and senior Clare Thomas notching five each.
With two eighth graders and eight sophomores and only one junior and two seniors on the roster, Cole knows it will take awhile for the new-look Wolves to gel.
“We’ve got a lot who are coming off a lot of junior varsity time, and for a first game against a really good team that’s got a lot of experience I think we hung in with them for a while,” Cole said. “It’s fun to see everything coming together. Obviously we’re trying to rebuild after we lost three stellar seniors, so this was a good test against a good team, and we’ve just got to improve moving forward.”
Given the early turnovers, Cole said that discipline is going to be key to the team’s development.
“We have the right ideas, we just weren’t making the right plays,” Cole said. “They work hard, they hustle. There’s going to be some tough games, but there’s also teams that we should be in control of and hopefully take care of handling. There’s just those minor lapses of judgment that we had tonight.”
The team will be on the road against Two Harbors on Tuesday, and will have a week off to fine tune things before hosting Mesabi East on Dec. 3.