Turnovers extend boys’ skid

Poor starts, punctuated by difficulties with opposing defenses, extended a losing skid for Ely’s high school boys basketball team.

The Wolves had 19 first half turnovers Feb. 16 at Chisholm and 20 in Tuesday’s home game with Mt. Iron-Buhl.

The result was a pair of lopsided defeats as the Wolves fell 79-38 to the Bluestreaks and 87-41 to the Rangers.

Ely has now lost five consecutive games and six of its last seven to fall to 10-13 overall.

The slump has put a damper on the Wolves’ chances for a higher seed in the Section 7A tournament, which starts in early-March.

Currently the Wolves are seventh among nine teams in the north half of the section and probably need two wins in their last three contests to stay in front of number-eight Nashwauk-Keewatin and avoid the “play-in” round of the tournament.

“We will probably need to win a game or two to stay ahead of NK as they will probably win a couple more by the end of the year,” said Ely Head Coach Tom Mc-Donald.

Ely shot well and took care of the ball during its most successful stretch this winter, which included home wins over Carlton-Wrenshall and Littlefork-Big Falls and a one-point loss at Greenway.

But both Chisholm and MIB pressured the Wolves into turnovers and got them out of sync.

“Against Chisholm the 19 first half turnovers did us in and we took care of the ball better in the second half but by then it didn’t matter...we couldn’t handle any of their pressure and it led to the turnovers and a poor shooting night,” said McDonald. “MIB…more of the same with 20 first half turnovers which led to a lot of run out layups for them. We again couldn’t handle the defensive pressure and didn’t shoot well. We are really offensively challenged right now, and though we still work really hard on the defensive end, it is difficult when we’ve been so poor on the offensive end.” The Wolves and Bluestreaks played evenly for about eight minutes before Chisholm’s defense took hold.

Chisholm scored 18 straight points during an extended run and the Wolves had a stretch where six-ofseven possessions ended without a shot.

The Bluestreaks’ Laurence Oberg drained five of his seven three-pointers in the first half and Chisholm jumped to a 44-17 lead by the break.

It was more of the same in the second half and the hosts sent the game into running time.

Oberg finished with a game-high 27 points for the winners, with teammates Ethan Lauzen (19) and Dom Pascuzzi (10) also hitting double digits.

Junior Caid Chittum led the Wolves with 13 points while sophomore Drew Johnson had 11 rebounds and six assists to go with his five points.

One of Ely’s few highlights came late in the game when the team’s only senior 6-3 Robert Towley - came off the bench to hit his first career three-point basket.

The Rangers jumped to a 47-18 lead by halftime on Tuesday, putting the host Wolves away early.

Sophomore Jack Davies paced Ely with 14 points and Chittum was next with 12.

• After Friday’s game at South Ridge, the Wolves close out the regular season with two home contests starting with Monday’s game against North Woods and wrapping up Friday, March 1 against Fond du Lac.