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Wolves upended by Mt. Iron-Buhl

Second half Ely scoring drought allows Rangers to rally to 56-52 win

David Colburn
Posted 1/25/23

ELY- When Ely basketball fans refer to the “drought of ‘23” in future conversations, they won’t be talking about the weather. They’ll be referring to the disastrous …

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Wolves upended by Mt. Iron-Buhl

Second half Ely scoring drought allows Rangers to rally to 56-52 win

Posted

ELY- When Ely basketball fans refer to the “drought of ‘23” in future conversations, they won’t be talking about the weather. They’ll be referring to the disastrous eight-minute second-half scoring drought last Friday that allowed the Mt. Iron-Buhl Rangers to come from eight points down to snare a 56-52 victory on the Timberwolves’ home court.
It was a battle royale from the outset in a first half that featured six ties and nine lead changes. Ely Head Coach Tom McDonald knew he needed to find a way to slow down MIB’s career scoring leader Asher Zubich and the Rangers’ high-octane offense, which came into the game averaging 77.5 points a game. To do that, McDonald turned to a diamond-and-one zone configuration with one player shadowing Zubich everywhere he went, and the ploy was effective, limiting Zubich to just four points in the first period. Ely sharpshooter Jack Davies canned a pair of late treys to break a 29-29 tie and give the Wolves a 35-29 lead at the half.
Both teams got off to a sluggish start in the second stanza, with Ely not collecting its first bucket until a baseline jumper by Gunnar Hart dropped in at the 14-minute mark. The Wolves grew their lead to 48-40 on the strength of baskets from Joey Bianco and Erron Anderson and three-balls from Davies and Caid Chittum. MIB called a time-out to regroup with 9:32 remaining.
When the teams came back onto the court the Rangers cranked up their defensive pressure on the Wolves, zeroing in on shutting down Bianco and Davies while mounting a comeback. MIB held Ely scoreless on 12 consecutive trips down the floor during a 12-0 scoring spurt that put the Rangers on top 52-48 with 2:45 remaining. Chittum finally broke Ely’s scoring drought with a pair of free throws with just 52 seconds left, and the Wolves had the ball with a shot at the lead in the final minute, but a Davies three missed the mark. Bianco would score a layup in the final seconds, but Zubich sealed the game from the free throw line for the 56-52 win.
The Rangers won this one by effectively taking Bianco and Davies out of the game in the second half. The duo combined for 26 first-half points including six threes by Davies, but could only muster seven second-half points between them.
“(Bianco) had to work really hard for what he got,” McDonald said. “They clamped down on Jack in the second half, which I figured they would because he had six threes in the first half. We weren’t able to free him up at all in the second half.”
But the Wolves did accomplish their defensive goal, holding MIB 21 points below their team average and limiting Zubich, who put up 53 against North Woods, to only 14 points.
“We needed to keep the score down against this team. We knew they were explosive,” McDonald said. “We tried to take Asher away because he’s that good of a player and I thought we did a really good job on him. We kept battling and kept playing defense, so it was good. We didn’t get too far down even though we were playing poorly.”
Turnovers were a problem for the Wolves, and while the offense couldn’t get on track in the second half, McDonald was still pleased with the team’s overall effort.
“We put ourselves in a position where we had a chance tonight and I thought we played really, really well against one of the better teams in the section,” he said.
Davies led the Wolves in scoring with 21, while Bianco and Chittum each scored 12.