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Grizzlies split a pair in week’s action

Panichi notches 1,000th point

David Colburn
Posted 1/30/25

FIELD TWP- On a Friday night when the Grizzlies’ boys handily defeated 7AA Duluth Marshall 76-52, the spotlight was on senior guard Louie Panichi, who dazzled the crowd with 19 points including …

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Grizzlies split a pair in week’s action

Panichi notches 1,000th point

Posted

FIELD TWP- On a Friday night when the Grizzlies’ boys handily defeated 7AA Duluth Marshall 76-52, the spotlight was on senior guard Louie Panichi, who dazzled the crowd with 19 points including three rainbow treys, eight rebounds, five assists and seven steals as he crossed the 1,000-point scoring mark for his North Woods career.
Both teams got off to a ragged early start, with Andrew Hartway answering a Marshall deuce with a three-ball at the 15:41 mark for a 3-2 Grizzlies’ lead. North Woods held the Hilltoppers to that solitary score for the next four minutes as they built a 9-2 advantage. The Grizzlies went up by ten at 21-11 on a chipper by Peltier, and a bucket by Hartway and two by Panichi vaulted North Woods to a 35-20 lead. Kalvyn Benner broke a short Grizzlies scoring drought on a mid-range jumper with just over a minute left in the half, and Aidan Hartway drained a buzzer-beating baseline jumper to send the teams into the locker rooms with North Woods leading 41-27.
Panichi’s magic moment came at the 17:07 mark of the second half when he took a pass from Benner beyond the arc in the corner and launched a trey that found the bottom of the net, causing the crowd to leap to their feet and roar their approval. The Grizzlies were up 44-29 at that point and were never seriously challenged the rest of the game.
Panichi had plenty of help in the scoring department, as Aidan Hartway had 16, Andrew Hartway had 15, and Benner scored 12. The Grizzlies won almost every statistical category that mattered – shooting, points in the paint, rebounds, turnovers, and more.
Grizzzlies Head Coach Andrew Jugovich was happy to see Panichi cross the 1,000-point mark and praised his work ethic that led him to reach this milestone.
“He very much deserved it,” Jugovich said. He’s been playing with me since tenth grade, being a starter, and he’s put in the work. He comes to the open gyms, he comes to the summer league, he puts in the extra time, and I’m just proud that he was able to get it.”
South Ridge
In a stunning meltdown against South Ridge on Tuesday, the Grizzlies choked away an 11-point lead in the final three minutes and lost to the Panthers 70-63.
The Grizzlies were riding high in the second half on the hot hand of Kalvyn Benner. After an erratic first half, Benner suddenly caught fire and found the range from all over the court, scoring down low, on midrange driving jumpers, and arching three-balls. In a span of about five minutes, Benner hit 15 points to vault the Grizzlies from a 31-27 deficit to a 44-36 lead. A triple by TaySean Boshey-Wilkerson, a deuce by August Peltier on a drive and dish by Panichi, and a bucket by Panichi put the Grizzlies up 54-43 with 2:57 remaining.
But having blistered the Grizzlies with a 15-0 run in the first half, the Panthers knew they weren’t out of it, and they came roaring back as the Grizzlies missed shots and fumbled the ball away. Panichi had the chance to seal the win from the free throw line with five seconds remaining and the Grizzlies up 57-55, but he missed the front end of a one-and-one and Benner was called for a foul battling for the rebound. South Ridge’s Isaac Coon calmly dropped in two charities to send the game to overtime.
Holding all the momentum, the Panthers struck first and struck hard in the extra period, but a pair of free throws by Panichi and a deuce by Benner tied the score again at 63-63 with 2:19 remaining. It was the last score the Grizzlies would get, as the Panthers closed out the win on a dominating 7-0 run.
Benner led the Grizzlies with 17 points, followed by Panichi with 14 and Aidan Hartway with 12.
Jugovich didn’t mince words when he emerged from the locker room after a lengthy postgame talk with his team.
“At the end of the game, we still don’t have that leader who’s willing to put the weight of the world on his shoulders and say, ‘Let me close out this game, let me have the ball, let me take the shots, let me get fouled,” Jugovich lamented. “When we were up eight to six to four, turnover after turnover, defensive lapse after defensive lapse, bad foul after bad foul, we didn’t have that one person, and until we find them, games like this are going to be hard to win.”
The Grizzlies were scheduled for a road game on Friday at Greenway, then have a short break before hosting Littlefork-Big Falls on Friday, Feb. 7.