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Grizzlies swat ‘Hawks

Slow start proves fatal for Northeast Range

David Colburn
Posted 1/19/22

BABBITT- The North Woods and Northeast Range girls basketball teams squared off on Monday in a rematch of their season opener, and once again the Grizzlies prevailed, defeating the Nighthawks, …

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Grizzlies swat ‘Hawks

Slow start proves fatal for Northeast Range

Posted

BABBITT- The North Woods and Northeast Range girls basketball teams squared off on Monday in a rematch of their season opener, and once again the Grizzlies prevailed, defeating the Nighthawks, 56-26.
Coming off a stinging 102-46 loss last week to state contender Mt. Iron-Buhl, the Grizzlies rolled into Babbitt determined to get off to a fast start against the 2-7 Nighthawks, and that they did. Seven minutes into the game and fueled by eight points from Hannah Kinsey and five from Hannah Cheney, North Woods led 15-2. They extended the lead to 23-2 before Maizy Sundblad hit a 13-foot jumper to break NER’s scoring drought.
“I thought we just kind of came out a little flat, a little slow,” Nighthawks Head Coach Paxton Goodsky said. “They didn’t.”
Grizzlies Head Coach Liz Cheney was hoping to get a big lead early so that she could give her starters some extra rest ahead of a Tuesday night game against undefeated South Ridge. Because the first string delivered, the Grizzlies’ reserves saw a lot of game action on Monday, and there wasn’t a lot of drop off.
In fact, one of those reserves, eighth-grader Lauren Burnett, edged out Kinsey for team high scoring honors, 13-10. In all, ten Grizzlies recorded scores on the night. Cheney had good things to say about Burnett and another reserve, eighth-grader Tatum Barto.
“Lauren started tonight as an eighth grader,” Cheney said, noting the Grizzlies were without two of their regular starters. “Tatum came off the bench first, and I was really excited for both of them. Tatum and Lauren are two girls that I think are really going to be contributing as we move into the playoffs this year.”
And while they couldn’t cut into the lead, the Nighthawks picked up their own pace a bit in the second half, riding the shooting hands of Sundblad and Natalie Nelmark, who both tallied five points.
Sundblad paced NER for the game with 10 points, and Nelmark dropped in nine.
“I’ve gotta tip my hat (to North Woods),” Goodsky said. “They outworked us today. I think we calmed down a little bit, putting a little bit of effort in at the end of that first half, but I was a little upset with our effort today.”
Cheney said the outing was a good opportunity to work on some aspects of play they don’t typically get to address in game situations.
“Tonight we worked on our zone defense, which I’m not a big fan of, but there are times when you need to play that,” Cheney said. “And we worked on some different offenses that when you’re playing a team like Mt. Iron or South Ridge you can’t make quick adjustments against.”
South Ridge
The extra rest and fine tuning didn’t do much for the Grizzlies when they came back home to face the Panthers on Tuesday. South Ridge ran its perfect record to 12-0 with a 77-23 win.
No Grizzlies scored in double figures. Barto led the team with seven points, including two treys.