Medford fends off furious rally to cap another 12-0 GNC run

A second straight 12-0 season in the Great Northern Conference was clinched Thursday in Mosinee by Medford’s boys basketball team but not before the Raiders went through some anxious moments at the end of a 70-65 win.

In less than eight minutes, the Indians cut a 27-point deficit to three, but the Raiders were good enough at the free throw line to make sure Mosinee never had the ball with a chance to tie.

With the win, Medford closed out the regular season at 22-2 overall, while Mosinee finished 8-4 in conference play and improved to 16-9 overall Tuesday with an 82-62 win over Wausau East in the opening round of WIAA Division 2 regional play. Mosinee, who also gave Medford a battle in a 62-51 loss at Raider Hall on Jan. 8, could face the Raiders again in a regional final on Saturday.

The top-seeded Raiders will open regional play Friday by hosting fourthseeded Merrill (10-8) in a 7 p.m. semifinal game. Third-seeded Mosinee will be at second-seeded Rhinelander (13-5) at the same time. The winners will meet on the higher-seed’s home floor Saturday.

For the first 27-plus minutes of Thursday’s game, the Raiders were highly efficient on offense and solid defensively in building a 58-31 lead.

They started to create some distance in the last seven minutes of the first half. Leading 22-16, the Raiders got a 3-pointer from Logan Baumgartner and a score from Peyton Kuhn to get their first double- digit lead. Mosinee got back within 28-21, but Brady Hupf scored inside and Hupf assisted on Baker’s cut to the basket. Kuhn buried a triple off a Nate Retterath assist with 17 seconds left before Mosinee’s Cyle Kowalski drove to the rack and scored with three seconds left to make the halftime score 35-23.

The Raiders were dominant in the first 9:30 of the second half.

Retterath swished a left-side 3-pointer to start it. Hupf scored inside and a Baker steal resulted in two made free throws for the senior. Baker scored again off a Hupf assist to make it 44-25, then he ran the floor and was rewarded with layups off back-to-back assists from Retterath and Baumgartner for a 48-27 lead with 13:27 left.

A Kuhn 3-pointer, a Kuhn assist to Hupf, another Kuhn score and Baumgartner’s right-corner trey seemed to put Mosinee away with 8:40 left.

But the points suddenly got harder to come by and Mosinee’s 6-5 senior Jake Placek caught fire. He hit three 3-point shots in a span of 3:10 to give Mosinee hope at 60-47. Kowalski’s steal and score made it 60-49 with 2:48 left.

Baker seemingly restored order with a three-point play 13 seconds later to push the lead back to 14, but Drayton Lehman hit a pull-up jumper and, after Placek blocked a Baumgartner shot, he picked up the loose ball, pushed toward the rim and got a three-point play to cut Medford’s lead to 63-54 with 1:46 left.

After a Baker miss in traffic, Kowalski sank two free throws with 1:29 to go. The Raiders missed a bonus free throw and Placek buried yet another 3 to pull the Indians within 63-59 with 1:09 still to play.

Baker’s bonus throw was followed by two more Kowalski free throws that made it 64-61 with 53.7 seconds left. From there, the Raiders were money at the free throw line, getting two from Kuhn, two from Baumgartner and two of four from Baker to get the lead back to seven with 14.2 seconds left. Placek put back a Kowalski miss with 5.3 seconds left, but the Indians did not foul anymore after the Raiders inbounded the ball.

Kuhn scored 21 points and Baker had a season-high 20 for Medford. Baker made seven of 10 shots from the field and six of nine free throws. He added four rebounds and three steals. Kuhn had four assists and three rebounds.

Baumgartner had 11 points, seven rebounds and two assists. Hupf had nine points, nine rebounds, two assists and three blocked shots.

Joe Sullivan went three for three off the bench to score six points. He had three assists and two rebounds. Retterath had five assists, four rebounds, two steals and three points.

Placek and Kowalski scored 22 points apiece while no one else had more than five for Mosinee. Placek had nine rebounds and scored 16 of his points in the second half. Defensively, Medford forced Kowalski into some tough shots, but the first-team All-GNC performer still got a couple of those attempts to fall.

Mosinee was eight of 20 from 3-point range (40%) and 24 of 59 (40.7%) overall from the field. The Raiders were 26 of 57 (45.6%) overall and seven of 23 from behind the arc (30.4%).

Medford only turned the ball over eight times compared to 12 for Mosinee. Rebounds were nearly even with Medford holding a 34-33 edge.

Medford has won 27 straight GNC games dating back to the end of the 2018-19 season.