Crosby-Ironton 61, Virginia 45
Key: Three Rangers reached double figures
Overall: CI 27-2, V 25-4
Next: Crosby-Ironton vs. Esko/Proctor winner in Section 7-2A championship at University of Minnesota, Duluth 7 p.m. Saturday
DULUTH-Every team aspires to be balanced. The Crosby-Ironton Rangers were Thursday.
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All five C-I starters scored at least seven points leading Subsection No. 1's second-seeded Rangers to a 61-45 victory over the No. 2 Subsection's first-seeded Virginia Blue Devils on the campus of the University of Minnesota, Duluth.
Senior Jack Silgen led the Rangers with 17 points followed by Noah Gindorff's 15 points and Trey Jacobs' 13. Evan Edmundson and Jonathan Jacobson each scored seven for the 27-2 Rangers.
"We really were balanced," said C-I head coach Dave Galovich. "It was a team effort on both ends of the floor. I thought we got good contributions from all our guys at key times. That led to our success."
A 9-2 run around the nine minute mark of the of the second half handed C-I a 50-34 edge, its highest to that point. Silgen scored seven of those points as he scored 11 second-half points.
Gindorff also scored 11 second-half points, but did his damage with 10 rebounds, two blocks, three assists and one steal. Gindorff surpassed 1,000 career rebounds. The senior, who surpassed 1,000 points last year, needed seven to reach the mark.
"We are way more confident," said Jacobs. "We've been to the section finals; this will be our third year in a row. We think we are way more prepared this year from last year, especially after tonight. I think we are way more confident."
Jacobson, who was held scoreless in the first half, scored all seven of his points in the second frame as the Rangers shot 11-of-21 (52 percent) from the field in the second half and were 12-of-15 from the line to outscore Virginia 36-27 in the second half.
Virginia shot just 11-of-25 from the field in the second half and stepped to the foul line just seven times for the entire game.
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"I thought defensively, there was only a couple times where we didn't communicate and they got a few easy baskets," said Galovich. "Other than that, they would come down and had to make several passes. A few times they had some guys make some good individual plays, but that's basketball. That's going to happen."
C-I jumped out to a 10-0 lead and built it to 18-8 with less than five minutes remaining in the half. Jacobs broke open a cold shooting first half with eight straight points and finished the first half with a team-high 11. C-I shot just 26 percent in the first half, but held Virginia to 30 percent from the field and forced six Blue Devil turnovers. The Rangers capitalized for seven points off those turnovers and went into halftime with a 25-18 edge.
"We just had to lock down on defense," said Jacobs. "Then we needed to cool it down on offense and run through our plays. Sometimes we can get too fast so we just needed to slow it down. I think we did that toward the end of the first half and into the second half."
The Blue Devils closed out the opening frame with a 7-3 run, however. Aho scored eight points, including two long-ranged 3-pointers. Virginia's zone defense held Gindorff to just four first-half points and C-I didn't help shooting just 2-of-11 from 3-point.
"It's kind of been that way all year," said Galovich. "Once we kind of get going others kind of feed off of it. It's a new environment. Yes, we were here last year, but that was the past. It takes us a little while to get going, but defensively we were solid and we were able to slow them down and that helped us tremendously."
Virginia 18 27-45
Crosby-Ironton 25 36-61
Virginia
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Drew Aho 14, Max Carlson 4, Tom Norman 9, Ethan Youso 12, Beau Foix 2, Bryce Kennedy 2. FG18-48 (38 percent), FT 3-7 (43 percent). 3-point 6-18 (33 percent).
CROSBY-IRONTON
Jack Silgen 17, Isaac Burley 2, Evan Edmundson 7, Trey Jacobs 13, Jonathan Jacobson 7, Noah Gindorff 15. FG 20-48 (42 percent), FT 17-21 (81 percent). 3-point 4-13 (31 percent).
