South Ridge Complete Wild Come-From-Behind Victory

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Dec 20, 2011

Kerry Rodd-NSO

Dan Wood led a second half surge that saw the South Ridge Panthers overcome an 18 point halftime deficit and go on to a thrilling 79-75 victory over the Ely Timberwolves.

The Timberwolves could do little wrong in the first half, while the Panthers struggled to slow the Ely offense down. Ely led 49-31 at the break and appeared to have the game well in hand. However, things changed in the second half when Panthers leading scorer Dan Wood got the hot hand and scored 18 second half points which included four 3-pointers in leading his teams wild come-from-behind win. Wood finished with 22 points on the night for South Ridge.

Jerome Otis also had a sensational night for the Panthers with 18 points, Colton Peterson scored 15, it was nine for Kody Karppinen, Aaron Smith added eight and Drew Janke finished with seven points.

Jared Poderzay and Sean Fisher led the Timberwolves with 27 and 21 points respectively and Matt Vandeerbeek was also in double figures with 10 points. Mark Helman finished with nine and Sean Jordan added eight for Ely.

For the game the Panthers hit eight 3-pointers while the Timberwolves hit six 3-pointers. Another key for the Panthers was the fact that they managed four more points from the free throw line than did the Timberwolves.

The win moves the Panthers to 4-1 overall, losing just the first game of the season to Cook County. South Ridge will be back in action on Dec 28 and Dec 29 when they compete in the Proctor Tourney.

Kerry Rodd can be reached at kerry@northlandsportsonline.com