Grewe's monster showing spurs Raiders to 74-47 win
MEN'S BASKETBALL
Nick Grewe played football at Winona State two years ago before taking last year off from school to work.
Last summer the chiseled 6-foot-4 freshman from Bertha-Hewitt walked into the office of Central Lakes College men's basketball coach Jim Russell and informed him he wanted to return to school and play basketball for the Raiders.
Based on Wednesday's performance in a 74-45 dismantling of the Fond Du Lac Thunder, Russell has to be jumping for joy that Grewe chose to play basketball, not football.
Nick Grewe
Grewe filled up the stat sheet with 10 points, 15 rebounds, four assists and four steals against the overmatched Thunder.
"We had a good rebounding day," he said. "Coach always talks about it. It's one of our main goals that he always puts up before a game so we try and get after that."
Milos Prijovic led CLC with 15 points and Yasin Jama added 11. Cody Hofmann came off the bench to score 10.
"I challenged some of our leaders to continue to get better," Russell said. "For example, Nick Grewe just dominated on the boards, that's what he's been doing for us and continues to do. Milos, the same thing. He's been scoring for us."
CLC's patented in-your-belly-button, man-to-man defense caused the Thunder to shoot just 27.9 percent. Fond Du Lac had only 18 points in the first half and went scoreless for almost six minutes in the second.
The outcome was no surprise as the Thunder entered the game as the lowest-scoring team in the division (37.7 average).
CLC 74, Fond Du Lac 47
The key: Nick Grewe had 10 points, 15 rebounds, four assists and four steals.
Division: CLC 6-0, FDL 1-5
Overall: CLC 16-3, FDL 4-12
Next: CLC at Hibbing 3 p.m. Saturday, vs. Vermilion at Ely 3 p.m. Sunday.
"We work real hard every day in practice on team defense," Grewe said. "We help each other out so if someone gets beat we don't want to get hurt too bad. We pride ourselves on defense and helping each other out. It's been a main goal for us."
CLC's seventh straight victory lifted the Raiders to a Northern Division-leading 6-0 mark and to 16-3 overall.
"We feel like we growing as a team every day," Grewe said. "We get a feel for each other more and more each time out. I think we're just growing off each other and just feeding off each other. We've got a good thing rolling right now."
One good thing about the blowout was that every Raider in uniform played and 11 scored.
"The good part is everyone got an opportunity, everyone got a chance to play," Russell said. "As a coach, the thing you hope comes out of this is nobody gets hurt, and that didn't happen.
"It's one of those games that I wish we had a little more rhythm, got going a little quicker, but I can't sit here and complain. We're 16-3 and 6-0 in the conference. Now we'll see what we can do on the road."
Fond Du Lac 18 27 - 45
Central Lakes 34 40 - 74
FOND DU LAC
LaDarius Frazier 5, Dylan Eggen 6, Steven Lyke 10, Greg Gillespie 8, Travis Huesers 7, Will Sheen 3, Harrison Woods 2, Kevin Lyke 4. FG 19-68 (27.9 percent). FT 2-7. Three-point baskets: Frazier, Eggen 2, Huesers 2. Turnovers: 21.
CENTRAL LAKES
Marcus Ayala 6, Nash Faulk 5, Yasin Jama 11, Nick Grewe 10, Milos Prijovic 15, Marcus McDonald 1, Eric Green 2, Erik Peeters 8, Cody Hofmann 10, Ahmed Farah 2, Filip Vukasin 4. FG 24-62 (38.7 percent). FT 19-29. Three-point baskets: Faulk, Jama, Prijovic, Peeters 2, Hofmann 2. Turnovers: 20.