No trouble at all in North opener

RIB LAKE GIRLS BASKETBALL

Virtually back to full strength for the first time in the early going, the Rib Lake girls basketball team nearly pitched a first-half shutout and buried Chequamegon 60-10 in its first Marawood North contest of the new season.

The now 1-2 Lady Redmen sank seven 3-point field goals in the first half and held the Screaming Eagles to just two made shots from the field for the entire game in the blowout win at Rib Lake High School.

“It was good to get into the win column,” head coach Wayne Mann said. “I thought the girls did a good job of being patient and taking the open shot. They are starting to square up to the basket on their shots.”

Twenty-one of Rib Lake’s first 23 points came in threes. Addison Gumz and Danielle Mann hit shots from behind the 3-point arc and Lauren Pelnis converted a 3-point play.

Then it was back to the outside where Josie Scheithauer hit a transition 3 and sank another from the right wing. After Tiara Kestler’s free throws at the 12:47 mark, Emily Rodman banked in a 3-point shot and then drilled another for a 23-0 lead. Kamy Annala scored on a steal for a 25-0 lead before the Screaming Eagles got their first point on an Isabelle Wegner free throw with 8:15 left in the half.

But Rib Lake continued to force turnovers on the perimeter with their zone defense and turned several of those miscues into points and took a 41-3 lead into the locker room at halftime.

“Defensively we played a tight 3-2 zone and basically held them to one shot,” Wayne Mann said. “We are doing a better job on the rebounding, but we still need to improve as games will get more fastpaced as we continue into the season. We also can expect to see more full-court pressure as the season progresses.”

It was 45-4 before Jessica Renken knocked down Chequamegon’s first shot from the field on a 3-point try with 13:48 left in the game. Jene Schwerwinski’s three-point play made it 47-10 with 12:08 left, but that was the end of Chequamegon’s offense. Rib Lake closed the game with a 13-0 run that included seven points from Rodman, including her third 3-pointer of the night and four points from Tia Bube inside.

Scheithauer led all scorers with 15 points, 13 of which were scored in the first half. She and Rodman both finished with three 3-point makes. Rodman scored a career-high 13 points.

Bube scored eight points and Pelnis had seven as both got their first game action of the new season. Mann finished with five points, Gumz and Molly Heiser scored three apiece, Kestler, Annala and Rebekah Strobach scored two each and Hannah Schuh had four rebounds and three steals.

Bube was the team’s rebounding leader with nine, while Danielle Mann grabbed eight and Pelnis had six. Annala had five boards, and Scheithauer had four. Strobach led Rib Lake with five assists. Annala added three steals, while Mann, Pelnis, Kestler and Rodman had two each.

Rib Lake made eight of 22 3-point shots (36.4%), 14 of 42 two-point shots (33.3%) and eight of 16 free throws.

Rib Lake travels to Edgar for a Marawood Conference crossover game Friday before visiting North rival Athens on the Blue Jays’ home floor on Tuesday.