The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1940-02-22
ELY LOSES TO
M0UNTAIMEERS
Defeated, 1871, in Seasons
Last Home Game; Travels
to Tower Friday.

Spotting the Mountain Iron basket
ball team points in the first half,
the Memorial high school quintet staged
a desperate counter attack in the final
two periods but couldn't quite close the
gap AS a result the Mountaineers
handed Ely it's fifth straight defeat,
81 to 81, on the local court, Friday
night.
Short on height but long on scoring
power, diminutive Guard Perala of
the visiting club, who scored IA points,
was the sparkplug of the Mountain
Iron attack. Barely 5 feet inches
tall, Perala, who Is Junior student,
sank 6 baskets, nearly all of them
difficult shots, to contribute nightly
to the Ely setback.
Another Junior, Albert Rowe, who
was back at his old guard position after
holding down forward job for the
past several games, rang up four
baskets to lead the Ely scoring. Close
behind was Eddie Grahek, another
third-year man, with points.
Paul Prola, who went in at guard
at the start of the second quarter for his
final appearance on Memorial court
turned in a whale of an aggressive
game, leading the fight, which at times
bordered on the rough and tumble
variety A senior, Prola was credited
with points.
Friday night the club will travel to
Tower to renew hostilities with the dis
trict's cellar team. Earlier in the
season Ely eked out 1929 win over
the west Vermilion range basketeers
on Memorial court. The return en-
gagement, if Coach Steve Smrekar can
do anything about it, won't be quite SO
close. Towers one victory of the
season was a surprise 1922 win over
Aurora on the formers court.
Behind 1910 at the start of the
second half, Ely put on the pressure
against the Mountaineers in the third
quarter. Outscoring the visitors LIS
the local crew narrowed the gap to
1921 as the final period got under way
Frank Vertnik and Rowe missed no
end of pot shots as the third period
started or the game might have ended
in very different manner. Willie
Grahek, who spelled Cousin Ed off and
on throughout the game at forward
couldn't make the ball go through the
hoop for the life of him. Scoreless, he
missed enough to have added a size
able figure to the Ely score
Behind 1927 with only a couple of
minutes left to play, Ely fought des-
perately to narrow the gap. 1t re-
manned for Andrew Luthanen, forward
who was also making his final appear
ance before home crowd, to bear the
brunt of the scoring. Luthanen sank
two counters to keep the boys in the
running, but his efforts were nullified
by Norlander, Brown and Marincelli,
who scored points between them to
put the game on ice.
The visitors didn't waste a shot, saw
ing their attempts for close-in cracks
at the basket. In the second period
they shot only eight times and made
six of them good; in the third they
made two out of five tries, and in the
last quarter, four out of nine. All
told they shot SO times and sank IA of
them for percentage of AZ. That's
mighty accurate shooting.
Ely made good on Is per cent of its
attempts, sinking 10 out of 81. These
are about the figures for the average
basketball game.
In sudden death" overtime pre-
liminary, the Ely seconds defeated the
Mountain Iron reserves, 24-22, as Mar
tin Starkovich scored. The score was
tied at % all as the regular playing
period ended.