Bulldogs make Raiders earn their first tournament victory

Medford’s Caleb Guden splits New London defenders Jackson Fields (l.) and Derek Helsten while driving toward the rim late in the first half of Friday’s 60-49 WIAA Division 2 regional semifinal win over the Bulldogs.

Medford’s Logan Baumgartner and Sam Blair (hidden) contest a driving shot by New London’s Jackson Fields in the final moments of Friday’s 60-49 regional semifinal victory at Raider Hall. Caleb Guden gets ready for the rebound.

New London wouldn’t let Medford run away with Friday’s WIAA Division 2 regional semifinal game, but the fourth-seeded Raiders were never really seriously threatened while opening their 2022 playoff run with a 60-49 victory at Raider Hall.

The Raiders seemed to have full control of the game a couple of times, but the fifth-seeded Bulldogs (9-15) didn’t quit and kept reeling them in to some degree.

But after a 7-0 run put Medford up 13-7, the Raiders stayed in the lead and advanced to Saturday’s heart-stopping 68-66 regional final win at Fox Valley Lutheran.

“We knew going in they were a very quick team,” senior Caleb “Chubs” Guden said. “Watching their film, we saw they were outhustling Mosinee for the most part in that game. We knew we needed to step up on the defensive end and we did that tonight.”

“We’ve seen them in other games play with some really tough teams or get behind and they just keep fighting and tonight that’s what they did,” Medford head coach Ryan Brown said of New London. “We couldn’t quite extend it out past that 16-point lead and they kept coming back. But I thought we just did a great job of responding when we needed to and closing the door on the game with a couple of baskets and stops.”

There weren’t many eye-popping differences between the teams on the final stats sheet other than two. Medford was 14 of 21 from the free throw line while New London was five of 11, and the Raiders forced 22 turnovers and scored 20 points off of them. Medford turned it over 11 times, which led to just eight points for New London.

“I thought our defense was good,” Brown said. “A couple of times we gave up middle and they hurt us. We came out with good energy, we really extended them out. There were some little things we can do better against their sets where they got a backdoor here or there or they got some open shots. They’re tough to guard with the stuff they run and they run it so quickly. I thought we did a good job.”

With New London leading 7-6, Medford went on its first key run of the game. It started with a Joe Sullivan 3-pointer. Logan Baumgartner’s spin move to the glass beat a double team and Charlie Kleist scored inside for a 13-7 Medford lead. Keagan Reybrock drilled a 3-pointer for New London, but Sullivan scored, Tanner Hraby knocked down a triple, Sullivan got a steal and score and Hraby scored off a baseline drive to give the Raiders a 22-10 cushion with 9:31 left in the opening half.

New London went on a little spurt that got it within 26-19 after a Kyle Wisniewski triple, Zach Rudolph buried a 3-pointer of his own to put Medford back up by double digits. The Raiders wound up settling for a 32-24 halftime lead.

New London’s 6-5 forward Ian Oberstadt started the scoring in the second half to cut Medford’s lead to six, but the Raiders countered with a run that ultimately put the game out of reach.

Guden, who had a nice night with six points, four rebounds and three steals, got a stickback off a missed 3 by Baumgartner to start it. Baumgartner posted up and scored over Oberstadt, Hraby knocked down two free throws and Guden dropped in a little pull-up shot. Sullivan added a hoop on a drive to the rim and Baumgartner scored off a screen and roll with Sullivan to give the Raiders their biggest lead at 44-26 with 12:30 to go.

New London scored the next five before Baumgartner hit a 3 to quiet the Bulldogs momentarily. Jackson Fields knocked down three trifectas for New London to help the Bulldogs get as close as 55-47 with 2:58 left and they turned Medford over after a timeout. But the Raiders rebounded a miss by Payton Ludick and turned that into a score by Sullivan, who drove right through the middle of New London’s defense with 2:13 left. Medford then closed it out at the free throw line.

“We missed some shots,” Sullivan said about the offense. He had 16 points and three assists in the win. “I don’t think it was one of our best shooting nights. We made some, we missed some.”

“We just needed to stay patient,” Guden said. “We started to do that and started to grind them down.”

Baumgartner led all scorers with 19 points. He added seven rebounds. Hraby

MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS

scored 11 points, Kleist had four, Rudolph finished with three and Brigham Kelley had a point and four rebounds.

“I thought in the first half we weren’t patient enough,” Brown said. “We had seven turnovers. We had three or four in the second half, so we were much better on that. It was probably just the energy and excitement.”

Sullivan and Guden admitted the team may have had some pent-up energy while playing its first game in eight days.

“Practice was fun, but you’re just waiting all week,” Sullivan said. “You want to get there. You prepare a lot.”

“You’re used to playing two games a week and now to go a whole week without playing a game was different,” Guden said.

Fields led New London with 11 points, including his trio of second-half 3s. Reybrock and Wisniewski added 10 apiece.