Three-point baskets have been a determining factor early on this season for Ely’s high school girls basketball team.
That was certainly the case in the Timberwolves’ last two outings.
Ely was buried under a barrage of three-pointers from Chisholm’s Olivia Pascuzzi Saturday at Target Center - as she hit eight in the Bluestreaks’ 61-42 victory in Minneapolis.
But two nights later, it was the Wolves’ Ruby Lowe who caught fire, knocking down a career-high nine triples and scoring 29 points as Ely defeated International Falls 75-58.
Ely (1-3) has taken more threepoint attempts than ‘twos’ in all four of its games this winter, but head coach Tomi Cole said that hasn’t been by design.
“It sure seems that (three pointers have been the focus) way, but it’s not really our MO here,” said Cole. “I do want us to be dynamic and all around the floor, but we’ll be easy to guard if all we do is shoot ‘threes.’ Now we need to find a mix of outside and also adding in the inside.”
Lowe, a junior, proved to be a consistent, effective threat as the Wolves gained their first win and knocked off the Class AA Broncos in a Dec. 4 game at the Memorial Gymnasium.
Both in the first half and the second, Lowe found the range from outside and seemed to hit a key basket whenever it looked like International Falls would rally.
Lowe shot 57 percent (9-for-17) from three-point range while four other Wolves also hit triples for a team total of 15 for the game.
Senior Zoe MacKenzie hit two of them on her way to a 14-point evening. She also had five rebounds.
Junior Amelia Penke recorded a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds to go with four assists and three steals.
Ely’s Lillie O’Neill came off the bench to hit a pair of three-point shots, finishing with 10 points and seven rebounds, while Lydia Shultz dished out a team-best eight assists to go with her eight points.
• Next up for the Wolves was Saturday’s game on the home court of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Minnesota Lynx.
Ely got the big-floor experience and hung tough for a half, but Chisholm and Pascuzzi took over as the game wore on.
Chisholm had a 25-23 lead at the break but quickly built a double- digit lead in the second stanza.
“I thought we played well in the first half,” said Cole. “There were certain things we needed to improve on but didn’t and in the second half we had a lot of errors, a lot of lapses and we didn’t knock down shots. It was a story of turnovers and not hitting our shots.”
Pascuzzi led all scorers with 28 points and she drained six three-pointers in the decisive second half.
Shultz helped keep the Wolves in the game, scoring a team-high 15 points with seven steals, six rebounds and three assists.
Both Lowe and MacKenzie hit two three-pointers each and had six points, while Penke, Julia Zgonc and O’Neill all finished with five points.
Penke also snared eight rebounds.
The Wolves had 29 turnovers in the contest, many in the second half.
“I thought the experience was good,” said Cole. “The girls had a good time and it was a great group of kids to go down there with and I’m glad the Hoop Club could figure out a way to give us this experience.”
• Tuesday’s game at Silver Bay was postponed because of weather concerns.
Ely is set to play Dec. 18 at North Woods.
