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Chittum fuels 5-0 start Ely senior pours in 41 as boys basketball team stays unbeaten
Caid Chittum was one of the Ely Timberwolves’ leading scorers as a junior, but he’s taken his game to an entirely new level this winter.
The Ely senior scored a career-high 41 points in a Dec. 13 win at Mesabi East, and he followed up with 33 more in Tuesday’s 92-63 home victory against Cook County.
The win was Ely’s fifth straight to open the 2024-25 high school boys basketball campaign, and both Chittum and the perfect start have been early-season eye-openers.
After scoring 16 points per night in 2023-24, Chittum has nearly doubled that output so far, averaging 31.8 points per game.
“Caid is shooting the ball well and I think his fast start is because of his tremendous work ethic,” said Ely Head Coach Tom McDonald. “He never takes a drill off in practice and he is continuous motion on the floor during games. He has also shot the ball extremely well and has gotten himself to the line well.”
When it came to free throw shooting, both Chittum and his teammates were deadly Tuesday.
Chittum was nine-for-nine on a night in which he scored 33 points and 11 rebounds, and the Wolves had one of their best nights at the line in program history, going 28-for-31.
The Wolves played at their usual breakneck pace against the visiting Vikings, creating turnovers, pushing the ball up the floor and scoring in transition.
Ely took control early, racking up 55 first-half points and overcoming seven first-half three-pointers by Cook County to lead 55-31.
The Vikings never threatened in the second half as the outcome was all but decided by Ely’s torrid start - which has been a consistent point of the early-season hot streak.
“I think the key to our start is on the defensive end,” said McDonald. “I think we are wearing teams out with our relentless pressure and the ability to switch up our defenses. We are also playing really good team basketball and finding the open guys.”
Junior Jack Davies added 25 points for the Wolves, who bypassed threepoint shooting and took control by taking the ball to the basket.
Another Ely junior, Drew Johnson, added 15 points, 13 rebounds and five assists for the night, while sophomore Max Brandriet came off the bench to add eight points.
Cook County’s Dyami Blackwell finished with 22 points.
• Chittum couldn’t miss for much of the Dec. 13 game at Aurora, which resulted in an 82-50 decision against Mesabi East.
The Wolves often turned turnovers and missed shots into points, with Chittum often converting on the other end. He added eight rebounds and eight steals as well.
Davies recorded 20 points while dishing out seven assists, and Johnson had a team-high eight assist to go with seven rebounds.
• While Ely is perfect thus far, the road is about to get more difficult.
Both Class AA Two Harbors and Bigfork loom as potentially difficult foes in this week’s holiday tournament and early-January brings the first of two clashes each with both North Woods and Greenway.
“The start is a bit of a surprise after the disappointing season we had last year, but the way they work in practice equals good things happening during games,” said McDonald. “The schedule will get tougher as we move ahead here. Both North Woods and Greenway got us twice last year so it would be nice to play well and maybe pull out a win against each of them. They are both athletic teams and Greenway poses a big threat with their size.”
