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Ewen pulls ahead of Jeffers late, 36-35, on free throws

PAINESDALE — It was a point-for-point battle until the final buzzer between the visiting Ewen-Trout Creek Panthers and the Jeffers Jets girls basketball teams. Ewen-Trout Creek senior Ava Moilanen found herself at the free throw line with six seconds left taking the 36-35 win.

Despite the late foul and the ensuing free throws that sealed a second straight loss for the Jets, coach coach Joe Romano was complementary of the refereeing in the contest.

“The Copper Country, I feel, has the best referees in the area,” he said. “I’m impressed with them. I know sometimes I’m hard on them but they’re always right.

“There are some things going around in the community. I want to give my full support the referees. They do a very nice job. I appreciate them. They make the game fun, and you can’t have a game without the referees.”

“Those two free throws at the end, (it was) a pressure situation,” said Romano. “Those were big. I told the girls that we shot not even 50 percent from the free throw line. It could’ve been anyone’s game. It was back and forth there at the end. We were lucky that the time ended and we were up.”

For much of the contest Ewen-Trout Creek made key steals keeping the scoreboard close, while the ball would hit the rim but not fall in for both sides of the floor. Both coaches were happy with how their teams played.

“My kids played well,” said Romano. “We worked on defense and it worked. Ewen-Trout Creek is a fantastic team. They’re well-coached, they have a very good tradition. They can shoot from anywhere. They don’t miss free throws.

“We got ourselves in a little trouble and that was our fault.

“I’m proud of them (because) even though we were struggling, we kept going,” said Panthers coach Jacky Besonen. “I felt like we played pretty good defense. Our defense definitely hustled because our offense was struggling a lot.”

Junior Marissa Nordstrom and senior Gracia Asiala received high praise from Romano. Nordstrom had eight points, giving the Jets a seven-point lead early in the second frame that was short lived after key takeaways, allowing the Panthers to go into the locker room with a 16-19 lead.  

Asiala put up 10 points, most in the second half.

“I’m proud of all my kids,” said Romano. “Nordstrom is playing with a slight knee injury and she is just answered the bell and I’m proud of her. Asiala played the best game of her career tonight, It’s just getting good. Tonight was fun. Today we put it together and that’s all that you can ask for.”

Jeffers will face Lake Linden on Monday for Homecoming after seeing them on Jan. 21.

Ewen-Trout Creek’s Abbie LeGaut put up 11 for the Panthers, most from inside the paint in the first half of the contest.

“We had some trouble shooting,” Besonen said. “Our shooting percentage was not very good. (We) were 25 percent from the floor (and) 47 percent from the free throw line, so shooting was not great. I think our girls did a good job of playing hard, even though we were having difficulty with our shooting.”

Ewen-Trout Creek will face Crystal Falls next and Besonen looks to have the same level of confidence going into that matchup.

“We’ve got to keep (and) have more confidence and then, maybe, the shots will start falling,” she said. “I think we kind of get down on ourselves when those shots aren’t falling.”

Ewen-Trout Creed 7 12 6 11 – 36

Jeffers 7 9 11 8 – 35

ETC: Bergland 4, LeGault 14, Schulz 1, Borseth 2, Besonen 5, Moilanen 7; Fouls: 15. Fouled out: Bergland; 3-point field goals: Borseth 1, Besonen 1

JHS: Hillstrom 4, Hill 2, Nordstrom 7, Asiala 10, Johnson 7, Lorenzetti 2; Fouls: 18; Fouled out: none; 3-point field goals: Asiala 2, Nordstrom 1

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