The Northwood High School boys basketball team defeated Shell Lake 49-32 Tuesday behind a 20-point third quarter effort.
With the game tied 6-6 after one quarter, the Evergreen boys took a slight edge after the second, leading 18-14. In the third quarter Northwood built a 38-21 lead Shell Lake was not able to overcome.
"We came out flat in the first half, but started the second half with an intensity we haven't shown in a while," said Northwood coach Paul Vaara. "Gerrod Richard returned to the lineup after missing six games with a knee injury, and that really provided a spark."
Tanner Tate led Northwood with 10 points, but Sam Radzak, Brian Albano and Brad Ross all added nine points apiece in a balanced scoring attack.
The Evergreens' win Tuesday snapped a seven-game losing streak, and helped them put a tough month behind them. After a fast start to the season, Northwood failed to pick up a win during January.
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"Being Groundhog's Day (Tuesday), hopefully the wins will repeat going forward," Vaara said.
The Northwood boys are now 6-8 overall and 3-5 in the Central Lakeland Conference.
Northwood 49, Shell Lake 32
Northwood 6 12 20 11 -- 49
Shell Lake 6 8 7 11 -- 32
Eagle boys split
The Solon Springs boys (10-7, 4-7) also fell to South Shore Tuesday, 52-44, one day after defeating the Siren Dragons at home in overtime.
The Eagles led in the first half but let the game slip away after halftime. Up 28-25 after two quarters, Solon Springs was outscored by the Cardinals 15-7 in the third quarter to trail by five points, 40-35, heading into the final quarter.
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Solon Springs put up 11 points in the fourth quarter and was 8-for-9 from the free-throw line for the night, but the Eagles couldn't reclaim the lead from South Shore.
Tyler Luebbe led the Eagles with 19 points, and Phil Larson also entered double figures with 11 points. Nick Grubbe added seven, Tyler LaRose had five, and Cole Klinzing had two points.
On Monday, it was the Eagles who rallied from behind to win the game.
Both teams started slowly, with seven points each in the first quarter. In the second, Siren knocked down a trio of 3-pointers to take a 26-20 lead. The Dragons pushed their lead to eight after three quarters, 45-37.
In the fourth quarter, Solon Springs stepped up its defense and erased Siren's lead as Luebbe scored 10 of the Eagles' 16 fourth-quarter points.
Solon Springs had allowed the Dragons to score 19 points in both the second and third quarters, but Siren was held to just eight points in the fourth to leave the game tied at 53-53 at the end of regulation.
During the overtime period, Solon Springs passed the ball around and got two points from four different players to win 61-57. Christian Hall scored all four of the Dragons' overtime points.
Siren's Andrew Brown was the game's high scorer with 22 points. Luebbe followed just behind with 21 points for the Eagles, including 5-of-6 shooting from the free-throw line.
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Klinzing scored 10 points for Solon Springs, LaRose made three 3-pointers to finish with nine, Larson had eight, Grubbe had seven and sophomore Cody Utyro added five points.
Solon girls fall
The South Shore Cardinals defeated the Solon Springs girls 68-20 Tuesday night in Port Wind in an Indianhead Conference basketball game.
The Cardinals led 40-5 at halftime and played their reserves for much of the second half.
Emily Gustafson scored 26 points for South Shore (7-7, 5-5), and Lindsey Olson added 21 points.
Aillien Bowker had nine points to lead Solon Springs (0-13, 0-9). Brittney Armstrong score four points, Jasmine Johnson had three and Shelby Johnson and Alex Sickler had two points each.
The Eagles played at Hurley Thursday night and host Mercer in a doubleheader Friday with the boys team.
The Solon Springs boys begin play at 6 p.m. Friday and the girls start at 7:45 p.m.
