Offense emerges in easy victory

RIB LAKE 57, OWEN-WITHEE 35

The start of the post-season served as a fresh start for the Rib Lake girls basketball team, who played with aggression and confi dence on the offensive end Tuesday and cruised to a 57-35 win over sixth-seeded and winless Owen-Withee in a WIAA Division 5 regional opener.

The third-seeded Redmen led wire to wire, jumping out to a 14-3 lead. The Blackhawks (0-14) got within six at 17-11, but an 8-0 run put Rib Lake’s lead back into double digits and that’s where it stayed the rest of the way.

The Redmen improved to 4-11 and advanced to a regional semifinal Friday at second-seeded Prentice (8-9) at 7 p.m. Rib Lake lost both regular-season games to its Marawood North rival, but they were relatively competitive games with Prentice winning at home 52-38 on Jan. 4 and on Rib Lake’s floor 38-25 on Jan. 29.

Four Redmen set season-high scoring totals and three of those totals were varsity career highs. Rib Lake hit 23 of 63 shots overall from the field (36.5%), which was their best shooting percentage since their second game of the year at Marathon when they only got 21 shots off.

Juniors Lauren Pelnis and Molly Heiser came out blazing on their way to 23 and 14 points respectively. Pelnis scored several points off her nine steals, but she also attacked driving lanes when they opened and consistently got to the rim. She added three assists. When the Redmen penetrated the lane, they often found Heiser open on the low block and she took advantage with her best shooting night of the season.

Freshman Danielle Mann, who returned to the lineup Saturday after a four-game absence, made plays on the offensive and defensive ends as well while scoring eight points. She had six steals. Rebekah Strobach, had the best offensive night of her junior season with five points and three steals.

“We definitely stepped up offensively,” Rib Lake head coach Mike Wudi said. “We emphasized transition from defense to offense and tempo with our half-court offense a lot in preparation for this game. It was nice to see players like Lauren, Molly, Danielle and Bekah have breakout games. I’m looking forward to going to Prentice on Friday and see how we match up against them the third time.”

Pelnis scored Rib Lake’s first four points off a steal and a baseline drive. Heiser followed with the next six, then Mann grabbed a defensive rebound and quickly got the ball to Pelnis, who went end to end to score and make it 12-2. Her steal and score made it 14-3 and Mann hit a long jumper to push the lead back to 11 at 16-5.

After the Blackhawks cut the lead to six, Pelnis got Rib Lake’s offense jumpstarted again by grabbing a loose ball on the defensive end and, again, going coastto- coast. Strobach got a steal to start a fast break and she ended it by putting back Josie Scheithauer’s miss. Heiser hit two of four free throws in an 84-second span and Mann got a steal and score to push the lead to 25-11.

Pelnis answered a five-point run by Owen-Withee by scoring five points in the final 26 seconds. She got a steal, got fouled and made two free throws. With 2.5 seconds to go, she took an assist from Heiser, scored and got fouled again. She converted the three-point play to send Rib Lake into the locker room with a 30-16 lead.

Pelnis started the second half with another three-point play, Heiser scored twice and Strobach got a steal and score to open up a 39-20 lead. Mann’s 3-pointer and offensive putback extended the lead to 46-23 and put the game away.

Kamy Annala and Tiara Kestler added second-half baskets for the Redmen.

In rebounding, Pelnis led Rib Lake with six, Heiser had five, Mann grabbed four and Jolee Gehrke and Strobach had three each. Heiser had seven steals to add to Rib Lake’s total of 30. Heiser and Gehrke had two assists each.

Alyssa Graski led Owen-Withee with seven points, while Reina Arndt had six.

Friday’s winner in Prentice will advance to the regional final game Saturday, also set for 7 p.m. The opponent will either be fifth-seeded Newman Catholic (1-14) or top-seeded Athens (8-9). Newman got its first win of the season in Tuesday’s regional round, beating fourth-seeded Mercer 51-30.

Phillips 84, Rib Lake 29

The regular season ended Saturday afternoon with a tough matchup for the Lady Redmen, who fell behind quickly and were no match for Marawood North champion Phillips in an 84-29 home loss.

The Loggers, who are ranked sixth in this week’s wissports.net Division 4 state coaches poll, got 28 points from one standout, Jada Eggebrecht, and 22 points from another, Rachel Callow, while improving to 11-0 in Marawood Conference games and 16-1 overall.

“Phillips is a very good team that we simply do not match up well against,” Wudi said. “They have great shooters, run the floor extremely well and play well together. We struggled early getting shots off against their defense, but settled in and played better as the game went on.”

Phillips, who held Rib Lake to seven points in the teams’ first matchup Dec. 22, tore out to a 49-13 halftime lead in this one and outscored Rib Lake 35-16 in the second half. The Loggers shot 50.7% from the field (34 of 67) and nailed 12 of 29 3-pointers.

While the Redmen weren’t nearly as prolific as the Loggers, they were better against them the second time around. They made 13 of 42 shots from the field, including three of 14 from long range. Twenty-seven turnovers stalled the offense, however, at times.

Pelnis led the way with eight points, including two-of-five shooting from behind the arc. Scheithauer made Rib Lake’s other 3-pointer and scored five points. Nellie Hopkins and Heiser scored four apiece. Kestler, Mann, Strobach and Annala all had a hoop apiece.

Pelnis led Rib Lake with five rebounds, while Heiser had three and Scheithauer, Hopkins and Kestler grabbed two each. Pelnis had two assists. Hopkins had three steals.

Rebekah Strobach bounces a pass to a teammate during the second half of Tuesday’s regional win.SARAH KOMAREK/THE STAR NEWS