Cardinals escape Ironwood with victory

IRONWOOD - Ironwood took Wakefield-Marenisco to the brink of an upset, but the Cardinals counted on a senior to pull out a 52-49 win in a non-conference, Gogebic Range rivalry game at the John Krznarich Gym on Friday night.

With 52.1 seconds left and W-M leading 49-46, Ironwood's Zach Combs, back from a five-week absence with a fractured ankle, dribble drove from the top of the key, bounced off a Cardinal player and shot the ball as he was falling to the right. It was a very tough shot, but it went in and then Combs sank the tying free throw to make it 49-49.

W-M called timeout with 24.0 seconds left to set up a last play. Cardinal coach Terry Fetters said the play was set up to go to either of W-M's best senior options - Shane Cole or Collin Gagnon. W-M looked for Cole first, but then found Gagnon open on the left wing. Gagnon slithered down the left baseline on a dribble and crashed into into his defender. He managed to put up a shot that somehow found the bottom of the net. Gagnon was fouled and made his free throw to take a 52-49 lead.

It was game over.

"The best player gets the ball in that situation-and Gagnon stepped up," Ironwood coach Pete Lewinski said. "Wakefield-Marenisco is very good offensively. They all can shoot. We deserved better and we played well. I'm real happy with the effort but not with the loss. A win once would be nice. It was a good game and hopefully a stepping stone that continues up to the tournament. That was one of our best games. We made plays like the 4-point play by (Desmond ) Sackmann."

Fetters was happy to get out of Ironwood with a win, but noted the Cardinals did not play their best game.

"I'm not satisfied," Fetters said. "We're not playing as a team right now. We need that team mentality to play with E-TC and Crystal Falls Forest Park. We beat Ironwood easily in Wakefield, so I think we may have taken them a little lightly. They were fired up and came to play and it could have been worse. We have to get our act together."

In a nip and tuck first quarter, the Cardinals opened up a 14-11 lead by the end of the quarter.

But when W-M's Nick Tarro buried a 3 from the top of the key with 5:48 left, the Cardinal lead grew to 21-13.

Ironwood's Ryan Sobolewski came down the lane and made a running one-hander and after Tommy Libertoski made a nice bounce pass to Shane Cole for a score, the Red Devils made a quick surge highlighted by Desmond Sackmann's triple from the left side. When Shane Buckley came down the lane and took a pass from Combs and scored, the game was tied 25-25, and it became clear that Ironwood meant business. It was 27-27 at the half.

With 4:11 left in the third quarter, Red Devil Luke Hewitt splashed a 3 from on top and Ironwood had its first lead at 34-33.

But W-M has a poised senior crew and Libertoski's back-to-back triples put the Cardinals up 41-34 and W-M scored again to finish the quarter leading 41-36.

In the fourth quarter, the lead see-sawed back and forth until the late dramatics and W-M squeaked one out.

Gagnon was the game's top gun with 18-points, while the under-rated Cole cracked double figures with 11.

Nathan Dray, who Lewinski said has been "really stepping up," topped Ironwood's scoring with 11-points. Hewitt, Buckley and Sackmann each had seven points.

The Cardinals won the junior varsity game 46-40.

Wakefield-Marenisco (15-3, 11-2) will host Ewen-Trout Creek in a Copper Mountain game on Tuesday at 6:30 and head to Watersmeet on Thursday. They are one-half game ahead of E-TC in the conference.

Ironwood finished its regular season at 6-14 and 6-10 in the Indianhead Conference. The Red Devils start play in District 96 in L'Anse against L'Anse on Mar.7.

W-M - Nick Tarro 3, Tommy Libertoski 8, Jake Franklin 3, Nick Orlich 2, Collin Gagnon 18, Shane Cole 11, Jake Suzik 7. FTs:8-11, Fouls: 11, Fouled out: none, 3-pointers: Libertoski 2, Franklin 1, Tarro 1.

Ironwood - Zach Combs 3, Jordan Giannunzio 4, Luke Hewitt 7, Desmond Sackmann 7, Ryan Sobolewski 7, Shane Buckley 7, Nathan Dray11, Ian Averitt 5. FTs:5-7, Fouls:15, Fouled out: none, 3-pointers: Hewitt 2, Sackmann 2, Dray 1.

W-M 14 27 41 52

Ironwood 11 27 36 49