FIELD TWP- Revenge is a dish best served cold, and the North Woods boys served up a frigid helping of vengeance to Ely on Tuesday, coming from behind to beat the Wolves 51-45 on the Grizzlies’ home court.
With only one win in nine tries, January was a dismal month for the Grizzlies, and no loss stung more than the 80-53 shellacking the Wolves laid on them to start the slide. Almost two months later, the Grizzlies were more than ready to atone for their lackluster play.
Tuesday’s game was far from pretty, starting out with only three buckets in the first 16 possessions. The Grizzlies had trouble penetrating Ely’s zone defense, but a trey and a driving bucket by Aidan Hartway gave North Woods an early 7-2 lead. But with Wyatt Tedrick draining a three and Caid Chittum collecting three doubles, the Wolves took their first lead of the game at 11-10 at the 10:40 mark. Louie Panichi scored for North Woods at the 8:12 mark, keeping the Grizzlies close at 15-14, but it would be five long minutes before the Grizzlies scored again. The Wolves, however, weren’t able to gain much of an advantage from the cold streak, going up 22-14 on a Drew Johnson turnaround jumper seconds before Trajen Barto broke the ice for the Grizzlies with a drive down the lane. The low-scoring first half ended with a Grizzlies’ hoop by Talen Jarshaw to cut the Ely lead to 26-20.
Fresh off a win against Chisholm where they came back from 15 down in the second half, the Grizzlies were confident going into the final stanza but failed to make a dent in the Ely lead, trailing 37-29 after ten minutes of play. But a trey by Jarshaw and a deuce and one by Panichi suddenly had the Grizzlies back to within two, and Jarshaw followed an Ely bucket by Johnson with another triple to get within one at 39-38. North Woods regained the lead 42-41 on a reverse layup by Kalvyn Benner at the 5:47 mark, but the Wolves went back on top 45-44 on a bucket by Johnson with just under five minutes to play. Barto followed that with a clutch shot from behind the arc to give the lead back to the Grizzlies, and a jumper in the lane by Panichi extended the lead to 49-45 as the Wolves began to misfire badly from the field. Jarshaw came up with a steal and a score with :45 remaining, and Ely had no answer, falling 51-45.
Jarshaw led the Grizzlies in scoring with 15, and Panichi added 11. Johnson topped the Ely effort with 19, with Chittum scoring 18. It was an off night for Ely sharpshooter Jack Davies, who scored 29 in the Wolves’ win in January. Davies failed to connect from three-point range and tallied just three points.
North Woods Head Coach Andrew Jugovich reflected on the Grizzlies’ gritty win.
“It was ugly out there for both teams,” Jugovich said. “Give credit to Tom (Ely Head Coach Tom McDonald). His team works hard. They’re probably the hardest working team that we’ve played all year. Our boys were tired. Their outside game was ice cold tonight, which is really what saved us.”
Jugovich noted that the Grizzlies’ threes were big.
“We always want better percentage shots, and no matter what the boys think we’re not that good of a free throw shooting team and we’re not that good of a three-point shooting team,” Jugovich said. “So when our threes do hit, especially with Talen on the left side of the court, it helps.”
McDonald echoed Jugovich’s comment.
“I thought Jarshaw hitting the threes really turned it around for them and we couldn’t hit a shot in the second half,” McDonald said. “I think we were one-for-16 on threes on the night and we’re not going to win many games shooting like that. If we’d have thought we’d have held them to 51 we’d probably think we’re going to win because our defense was good, but we just couldn’t score. And (that was) compounded by 21 turnovers on the night. I thought they played well defensively, and we just couldn’t handle it.”
With their fifth win in six games, the Grizzlies popped back above the .500 mark at 13-12 with a tough Friday road contest at Deer River to end the regular season. The 16-9 Wolves will finish on the road as well, at Fond du Lac. The Section 7A tourney gets underway next week,