.jpg)
Ely boys open 7A tournament with home game on Thursday night
In many ways, the end of the regular season has been a meat grinder for the Ely Timberwolves.
North Woods edged the high school boys basketball team 51-45 on Tuesday, but that loss was on the heels of an impressive 74-64 home victory over South Ridge just four days earlier.
Add late-season defeats to Chisholm and Mt. Iron-Buhl, and Friday’s regular season finale at Fond du Lac, and if anything the Wolves will be battle tested once the Section 7A playoffs begin this week.
Seeding will be determined over the weekend, but it appears that the Wolves will be ranked seventh in 7A and have a home playoff tilt on Thursday, March 6, starting at 6 p.m.
Potential opponents include Northland, Chisholm and Fond du Lac.
No matter what, Ely Head Coach Tom McDonald expects a difficult evening.
“I am really not sure who we will be matched up against in the opening round but it will be a tough game no matter who it is,” said McDonald. “We will have to continue to play well defensively and we will have to shoot better than we have recently. We have really struggled from behind the arc this season and to win in the playoffs we will have to shoot the ball better.”
The Wolves were 16-9 heading into the regular season finale, but 7A is topped by an impressive field of contenders.
Standing out is defending section and state champion Cherry, which hasn’t lost to a 7A foe all season and is 24-1 overall.
Deer River (23-2) is the likely second seed, and a potential quarterfinal foe should the Wolves prevail in the first round.
Mt. Iron-Buhl (21-4) and Cromwell (17-7) are currently in line to be seeded third and fourth, respectively.
The March 6 winners all advance to quarterfinal round action March 8 at Esko, with the semifinals and finals the following week at Duluth.
• Ely dominated North Woods in a January encounter, but the rematch on the Grizzlies’ home floor was a decidedly different affair.
The Wolves were held to 19 second-half points as the Grizzlies overcame a 26-20 deficit.
Ely went the last four and- a-half minutes without a point and for the game, the Wolves shot one-for-17 from three-point distance and committed 23 turnovers.
“We played well defensively but really struggled on the offensive end,” said Mc-Donald. “We led for most of the game until they hit some threes to take the lead with six or seven minutes to go. We just could never get into any flow and I thought they defended well against us.”
Junior Drew Johnson was Ely’s top scorer with 19 points, and he secured 12 rebounds to complete a double- double.
Senior Caid Chittum poured in 18 points with six rebounds.
• The Wolves led by as many as 20 points and withstood a late run from the taller Panthers and hung on to beat South Ridge in the regular season home finale.
Junior Jack Davies was on fire for much of the night, scoring 34 points and picking apart the South Ridge defense. He also dished out seven assists.
Chittum was next with 25 points and seven rebounds and Johnson contributed 12 points and seven rebounds.
