Local Sports

Mountaineers show improved offense in 51-39 win over Norway

IRON MOUNTAIN -- During the pre-holiday portion of its schedule, the Iron Mountain girls varsity basketball team was simply not good enough offensively to trouble the better teams.

Through their first five games, the Mountaineers averaged only 37 points per game, including just 31 over the final two games before the break.

In the two games since coming back, Iron Mountain has reached 50 both times, including Tuesday night when the Mountaineers led wire-to-wire in a 51-39 victory over Norway at Mountaineer Gym.

Junior Chloe Maycroft scored a season-high 20 points to help power the Iron Mountain attack.

"I saw a lot of really good things, some things we need to tweak, but our execution is definitely getting better," Iron Mountain coach Karen Ellis said.

The Mountaineers (2-5) used a dribble weave offense for much of the night against Norway's man-to-man defense and the strategy worked. Iron Mountain had much better spacing than it had in previous games and was more aggressive offensively than it had been. The emergence of Maycroft as a double-digit scorer (17.5 points per game in her last two) is a large factor as well.

"Hey, we're feeding it to her, but she was also getting a lot of rebounds and a lot of put-backs and she's in a perfect position under there," Ellis said. "And she's got an excellent jump shot and, for her to execute it, really makes our team a lot stronger."

On the other hand, the visiting Knights (4-5) looked like they had little in the tank on the night. Norway scored just two points in the opening quarter and fell behind by eight. In the first eight minutes, the Knights had seven turnovers and finished the evening with 23.

Norway coach Joe Tinti said there is illness going through his team presently.

"But Iron Mountain came out, they were faster than us, they were more physical than us and we were fighting uphill the whole time," Tinti said.

Iron Mountain scored nine of the first 11 points to start the second quarter to extend its lead to 19-4 with 4:35 to play before halftime. Junior Ellison Powell hit back-to-back jumpers in that stretch as part of her 11-point evening.

The host Mountaineers stretched their lead to 33-15 halfway through the third quarter, sparked by eight points from Maycroft.

However, the Knights showed their first signs of life with a 10-2 run to slice their deficit to 10, but Powell sank two free throws and junior guard Callie Bianco hit a jumper as Iron Mountain reestablished a 14-point advantage heading into the fourth.

"I think they're finally getting into a comfort zone with (the offense) and they're seeing the different opportunities that they can take with it and they're seizing (them) finally," Ellis said of her team.

Norway made its final push to begin the fourth quarter when junior Andi Carlson scored eight straight points for her team as the Knights sliced the gap to 42-33 with 4:48 to play.

But Iron Mountain senior Annslee Runsat hit a driving layup out of the weave to put her team up by double figures again and Norway never threatened again.

Jerry DeRoche can be reached at 906-774-2772, ext. 247, or at jderoche @ironmountaindailynews.com.