With his team trailing 15-2, a lot of thoughts raced through Jeff Buffetta's mind, but one was certainly the most pressing for the Mountain Iron-Buhl girls basketball coach.
"I was thinking, 'We better turn this around really quick," Buffetta said. "When we finally made a big shot, everything changed for us."
MIB did just that, surviving a tough start and going on to beat North Woods 48-44 in the Section 7A final before more than 2,000 at Hibbing Memorial Arena.
Lissy McCulloch's runner that bounced on the rim and fell in with just over a minute to play gave the Rangers the lead, and then the sophomore guard iced it by making a pair of free throws with about 12 seconds to play as MIB won its third straight section title. Seventh-ranked North Woods had beaten the top-ranked Rangers 52-50 during the regular season.
"Both teams played with a lot of jitters," Buffetta said. "It came down to who could make a couple plays at the end, and we were fortunate enough to do that. It was pretty intense. North Woods has such good players. They've beaten us the last two years (during the regular season) in very good basketball games, and I think everyone in Northern Minnesota was awaiting this matchup in a championship game. It lived up to the billing."
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MIB (28-2), which finished as state runner-up last year, advances to play fourth-ranked Minneota (27-2) in the Class A quarterfinals at 1 p.m. Thursday at Williams Arena in Minneapolis. Minneota is also making its third straight state tournament appearance.
"Obviously Minnesota has a great team, but the goal in going down there is to win it," Buffetta said.
Chelsea Mason had 15 points to lead MIB, including a 3-pointer that helped spark the Rangers out of their first-half doldrums, while McCulloch had 10 of her 12 points in the second half.
Darby Youngstrom had 18 points to lead North Woods (25-3). The junior guard already has 2,184 points for her career.
Destinie Villebrun added 10 points, including a late 3-pointer that gave the Grizzlies the lead before the Rangers came back with a 3 of their own.
"Oh my gosh, so many things happened in that game it was all a blur," Buffetta said. "It was loud. You couldn't hear anything the whole game. It was a crazy night."
BOYS BASKETBALL
GRAND RAPIDS 74, NORTH BRANCH 68
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Sophomore center Alex Illikainen made his return from a hand injury to spark the host Thunderhawks to the Section 7AAA quarterfinal win in overtime.
Illikainen scored 24 points, including six of Grand Rapids' 10 points in the extra session. Justin Gill added 16 points for the Thunderhawks (18-9), who advance to play Chisago Lakes (11-16) in the semifinals at 7:45 p.m. Wednesday at Duluth Denfeld. Hermantown and Cloquet will meet in the other semifinal at 6 p.m.
