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Dominant defense

Stifling defense and hot outside shooting leads Jets to blowout victory over Mid Pen

Austin Hemmingson | Daily Press North Central’s Brady Eichmeier (left) drives for a lay-up as Mid Peninsula’s Jimmy Rajala (right) defends Friday at Mid Peninsula.

ST. NICHOLAS — Senior Griffin Johnson scored 16 points and North Central pummeled Mid Peninsula 62-31 here Friday. The Trojans doubled up the Wolverines behind excellent outside shooting and stifling defense.

“It was a good performance,” Jets’ coach Mike Malone said. “We played through adversity early and we played really hard on defense. We didn’t lose our cool.”

The Jets led 18-11 at the end of the first quarter and then started to seperate with a dominant second quarter. They went on an 8-2 run that ended with a Noah Gorzinski lay-up with 4:18 remaining in the half. Then with 2:37 to go, the Jets went on another 8-0 spurt that gave them a 34-18 lead at the break.

“Exhaustion really set in and was our main problem,” Wolverines’ coach Mark Branstrom said.

“When the bell came for the second quarter our guys were tired — they didn’t have much left. We have some bigger guys that had never played basketball until a couple years ago but I’m really proud of their effort. They’re a family out there on the court.”

The Jets continued to blow things open early in the third quarter, scoring the first five points to extend their run. Mid Pen fought back by scoring six of the next eight, but the Jets finished the quarter strong and dominated the fourth.

North Central held the Wolverines to just three points in the final period, and played hard to the last whistle.

“That team (Mid Pen) is going to get better as the season goes on,” Malone said. “They were tough to box out but our kids fought hard to rebound.”

The Jets hit six three-pointers on the night. Asked about the success shooting from behind the arc, Malone says the focus of the team is to take the open shot.

“The gameplan is to get open looks,” he said. “We want to dribble penetrate and find the open guys. We played with a lot of tempo tonight and that worked to our advantage.

“It’s still early in the season but it’s all about doing the little things. Historically, we come out flat on the road but tonight we came out decent. Once we settled in we played good basketball.”

It was a complete team effort for the Jets, as all nine players scored.

The Wolverines displayed a valiant effort, but were simply outmatched.

“They (Jets) always have tremendous shooters,” Branstrom said. “It was a case of talent versus exhaustion. In the first quarter when we weren’t fatigued, we played pretty decent. We executed most of the things we had done in practice.”

Branstrom says the Wolverines wanted to move the ball better and run their offense, but ran out of gas.

“We wanted to move the ball,” he said. “We were just tired from chasing them around on defense and that’s what led to their open looks from three too. I’ve been telling my guys you can’t leave shooters open and you have to get a hand in their face.”

Branstrom remained optimistic about the future.

“We’ll need a good month or two to get the kids to buy in to what we’re doing, but once we do that I think we can be pretty decent. It’s all about doing the little things — we have a lot of work to do.”

Johnson led the Jets with 16 points, while Gorzinski and Carter Holle each chipped in with 13.

Zach Englund led the Wolverines with 12 points.

North Central’s jayvee team defeated Mid Pen 61-5.

The Wolverines return to action Monday at Bark River-Harris, while the Jets visit Stephenson Tuesday.

North Central 18 16 15 13 — 62

Mid Peninsula 11 7 10 3 — 31

North Central — Johnson 16, N. Gorzinski 13, Holle 13, Bentely 4, Eichmeier 4, I. Gorzinski 4, Gronmark 3, Timblin 3, Hanchek 2. F: 11; FT: 6-6. 3-point field goals: Johnson 2, N. Gorzinski, Holle, Timblin, Gronmark.

Mid Peninsula — Englund 12, McNally 7, McClain 6, Trudell 4, Rajala 2. F: 12; FT: 5-9. 3-point field goals: Englund 3.

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