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After an overtime victory in January, the Ely Timberwolves tightened things up defensively and had a much easier time with McGregor in the rematch.
Ely kept the Mercuries’ most potent weapon under double digits, and the Wolves came on strong in the second half en route to a 61-45 win in a Section 7A high school boys basketball game Wednesday night at the high school gymnasium.
The sixth-seeded Timberwolves ran their record to 17-10 and moved on to a Saturday quarterfinal, set for 5:30 p.m. at Esko, against third-seeded Mt. Iron-Buhl.
“I always think it’s a plus when you get to the Saturday game,” said Ely Head Coach Tom McDonald. “We struggled last year and pretty much flipped last year’s record around, so it’s been a great year and the kids have worked so hard and come in with a great attitude everyday.”
Senior Caid Chittum, who missed the regular season matchup with the 11th-seeded Mercuries, scored 20 points on Wednesday as did junior Jack Davies. Junior Drew Johnson added 15 points and the Wolves’ “big three” combined for 55 of the team’s 61 points.
Ely fell behind 12-6 early on but the Wolves’ defense soon took its toll. The Wolves held Kaiden Kellerman, the Mercs’ leading scorer, to just nine points for the entire night.
The Wolves would soon rally to take a 26-23 lead and they would control the second half. McGregor fell behind by double digits and would get no closer than three points the rest of the way.
“We played well defensively all night,” said McDonald. “Their top scorer got 11 and I thought we covered their shooters well the whole game.”
Johnson and Chittum got five rebounds each and Ely also got valuable minutes from senior Wyatt Mattson..
“Wyatt played a lot and played really well and did all the hustle things for us,” said McDonald.
Greg McDowall paced McGregor with 11 points but was the only player on his team to reach double digits.
“We played three different zones on them and overall I thought we just covered them well all night,” said McDonald.
Down the stretch, McGregor never made a run that put the Wolves in jeopardy and Ely secured its playoff rematch with third-seeded Mt. Iron-Buhl, which downed Nashwauk-Keewatin Wednesday and owns two double-digit regular season wins over the Wolves.
“They’re so hard to guard,” McDonald said of the Rangers. “Their big guy is such a beast in there and we have trouble guarding him. Once you focus on him they have so many shooters. We’ll have to hope that they don’t shoot well.
Saturday’s winner moves into the 7A semifinals, set for Thursday in Duluth, and a likely contest against second-seeded Deer River. Defending state champion Cherry is the top-seeded team and prohibitive favorite in the section.
• Fond du Lac made a whopping 18 three-point baskets in a 97-79 win over the Wolves in the Feb. 28 regular season finale at Cloquet.
Ely’s Chittum was on fire, pouring in 35 points for the evening, but the Wolves couldn’t keep up with the onslaught of three-point bombs from the hosts, who shot at a better than 60 percent clip from long distance.
Davies added 14 points for the Wolves, while Johnson was next with 12 and junior Tyler Fritz came off the bench to add a season-high nine points.
