FIELD TWP- The new year hasn’t been kind to the North Woods boys basketball team. The Grizzlies took to their home court on Tuesday against Fond du Lac, looking to rebound from Friday’s big loss to Ely. But North Woods came up empty handed, letting a halftime lead slip away and missing a pair of last-second treys in a 65-62 loss to the Ojibwe.
Andrew Hartway got the Grizzlies on the board first when he was fouled on a made driving layup and hit the free throw for a 3-0 lead. Louie Panichi followed up a Kalvyn Benner deuce with a triple for a 9-4 advantage, and consecutive treys by Benner and Talen Jarshaw put the Grizzlies ahead 15-6 at the 13:22 mark. The Grizzlies maintained that nine-point edge the rest of the half, going into the locker room up 33-24.
North Woods got two quick buckets from Jarshaw and Hartway to start the second half and held a ten-point advantage when the Ojibwe began to slowly cut into the lead. A basket by Fond du Lac’s Kingston Almer at the 9:06 mark knotted the score at 43-43, and a knockout battle ensued from there. The Ojibwe took the lead 50-48 when Chazz Martineau faked a three and drove for a score, and after North Woods tied it Martineau shot a trey that went down for a 53-50 edge.
Fond du Lac continued to lead until 2:58 remained in the game when Jarshaw connected on a three from the top of the key to tie the score at 58-58. Martineau put the Ojibwe back on top 61-58 with another three, but Jarshaw converted on a pair of baseline drives to hand the lead back to the Grizzlies, 62-61, with 1:07 remaining.
Almer connected for two for Fond du Lac on their next possession, and after North Woods missed a pair of shots Almer was fouled and converted a pair of free throws for a 65-62 edge with 23 seconds remaining. Jarshaw and Aidan Hartway both had good looks at threes to tie the score in the final seconds, but neither connected and Fond du Lac grabbed a rebound to preserve the win.
Grizzlies Head Coach Andrew Jugovich was clearly frustrated that his team let this one slip away.
“It comes down to how hard our boys want to work,” Jugovich said. “I just told them there are going to be changes. If they don’t want to work when they’re in the game, whether it’s going after loose balls, boxing out, making layups, playing help defense, it’s going to be the next man up, because we need something to change. I watch the junior varsity, I watch practice, I see who works hard. I think it’s time to reward them and see what they’ve got.”
Aidan Hartway led the Grizzlies in scoring with 18, followed by Jarshaw with 16 and Andrew Hartway with 10.