Not what the computer projected, but semifinal pairing is a good one

Did the WIAA’s computer-generated seeding process get it wrong or did lowerseeded teams just play exceptional basketball during the regional grind?

The question could make for a fascinating debate in many towns across Wisconsin, but all that matters this week in Medford and Rhinelander is that their teams are still playing in the WIAA Division 2 boys basketball tournament and will collide tonight, Thursday, in Antigo in a sectional semifinal showdown.

It will be the third meeting of the season between the Great Northern Conference rivals, who split the first two. Rhinelander overtook the visiting Raiders, who couldn’t buy a bucket late, and won 55-49 on Jan. 4, but Medford got ahead big early in the rematch at Raider Hall on Feb. 8 and coasted 62-39.

Neither outcome, of course, will have any bearing in what happens tonight in a matchup few probably saw coming between the sectional half-bracket’s fourth and sixth seeds. Tip time is 7 p.m. with the winner advancing to Saturday’s sectional final, which has been moved to Eau Claire North from its original placement in Menomonie.

“It’ll be a good game,” Medford’s leading scorer Logan Baumgartner said after the Raiders knocked off one-seed Fox Valley Lutheran 68-66 Saturday in a regional final thriller. “They always play us tough. It’ll be in Antigo, so there really won’t be a home court advantage this time. I think if we just do what we do, we’ll have a good chance.”

It can be argued that each teams’ loss to the other during the regular season came during its low point of the year, but now each team is playing its best basketball. Medford’s loss to Rhinelander was the first of three in a row, though the next two were to outstanding teams in Mosinee and La Crosse Central. Medford had, by far, its worst two shooting nights of the year at Rhinelander and Mosinee and then played one of its best games in a 74-68 loss at Central, who ended the season ranked number one in the state in the Associated Press’ Division 2 rankings and number two in the WisSports. net coaches poll.

The Raiders got rolling again after a 76-64 home loss Jan. 22 to Northland Pines –– a one-seed and sectional qualifi er in Division 3 –– and have gone 12-1 since then, including Saturday’s win at Fox Valley Lutheran and a 60-49 regional semifinal win over fifth-seeded New London on Friday.

Rhinelander’s loss to Medford was right in the middle of the Hodags’ sevengame losing streak that dropped them from second to fourth place in the GNC. The Hodags were 8-13 overall when the streak ended but now have won five straight, including three last week in regional play. In the semifinal, they went to third-seeded Shawano and beat the Hawks for the second time this season, 61-56 in overtime. When seventh-seeded Merrill knocked off Mosinee (22-3) 64-60 Friday, the Hodags got a surprise home game in Saturday’s regional final round, found their outside shooting touch while overcoming a six-point halftime deficit and outscored the Blue Jays 72-64 to avenge a 75-68 regular-season defeat from Feb. 1.

Tonight, Medford is seeking the pro- gram’s first sectional final berth since 1983 when it fell 35-32 to Wisconsin Rapids in Marshfield in a Class A matchup. Rhinelander was a Division 2 sectional finalist in 2014, losing 72-49 to Rice Lake in Marshfield.

“We’re firing, so we just have to keep it going,” Medford head coach Ryan Brown said after Saturday’s win at Fox Valley Lutheran. “We keep talking about wanting to get over that hump. Thursday, we’re playing Rhinelander. We just have to leave everything on the floor. They’re a really good, well-coached team. We just need to continue to do what we’ve been doing. Play defense at a high level and then, offensively, take great shots.”

“Our record does not do us any justice,” Medford senior Joey Sullivan said moments after he hit the buzzer-beating shot Saturday that took out Fox Valley Lutheran. “We’ve gotten so much better over the course of the season. In our first conference games, we couldn’t shoot. We weren’t a team. We were taking dumb shots, not making the extra passes like we are now. We’re making extra passes, we’re moving the ball. We’re a team. It’s been a ride, it’s been so fun. I’ll play anyone. I’m just glad to still be playing.”

Rhinelander’s main threat is senior guard Jacksen Smith, a UW-Superior recruit who is 6-2, averages about 17 points per game and hits 3-pointers at about a 35% clip. But the Hodags have gotten a recent lift in the last month from sophomore guard Will Gretzinger, who has emerged as another 3-point threat. Senior Ryan Jamison is a capable shooter as well, having hit as many as five 3s in a game this year. Inside, 6-3 senior Jackson Zettler was a thorn in Medford’s side in the two regular-season meetings. He made five of six shots while scoring 14 points and added seven rebounds in Rhinelander’s win. He had six offensive rebounds and eight points during Medford’s win at Raider Hall.

Rhinelander surpassed the 70-point mark offensively in its first two games and then didn’t do it again until its regular- season finale against Tomahawk. Now the Hodags have done it in three of their last five games.

Medford’s constant has been its defense, which allows 50.5 points per game. The Raiders ran into an elite player Saturday in Fox Valley Lutheran’s Josiah Butler, who went off for 39 points while hitting seven of 10 3-pointers. Since Pines broke the Raiders down for 76 in that January loss, Medford has allowed just three opponents to get over 60 and held four to 41 or less. Even in its most recent loss, River Falls, a two-seed on the other side of the sectional bracket, scored only 50.

As for the seedings that were announced on Sunday, Feb. 27, Medford said its four-seed was a bit of a motivating factor, but simply surviving each round is more important to the Raiders than proving a computer wrong.

“I was expecting the three-seed, somewhere a little higher,” senior Brigham Kelley said. “But then the four came out and we just said we have to take care of business one game at a time and we did.”

“We were excited about it,” Brown said. “We thought we should be the 3-seed, but when we weren’t we said it’s an opportunity to play two different teams. The hard and nerve-wracking part about that is that when you watch someone on film, you don’t know where that puts you. When you’ve played someone you know, it’s like OK when we D up we can make them do this. But when you see someone on film and you seen them play good against good teams you wonder, can our defense still withstand what it needs to do.”

The other side

Tonight’s winner will face one more major hurdle that stands in the way of its dream of going to the state tournament in Saturday’s sectional final.

Tonight’s other semifinal features Mississippi Valley Conference rivals La Crosse Central and Onalaska in a game being played at La Crosse Logan. Central comes in at 25-1 and has not lost to a Wisconsin team this year. Onalaska, the defending sectional champion took some graduation hits after last year but is 19-5 and went 8-4 in the MVC.

This rivalry, however, is among Wisconsin’s fiercest right now and Onalaska is on a 10-1 run of its own right now, giving this game an anything-can-happen kind of feel. In the regular season, Central survived a 40-38 grinder at home on 40-38 five days after beating Medford. On Feb. 18, Central won 72-61 on the Hilltoppers’ home court.

The Riverhawks have used a balanced offense that includes five double-digit scorers on average, good overall size and a solid defense to find their success this year. Central shot 54% from the field and only turned the ball over five times in its win over Medford.

Third-seeded Onalaska isn’t much different. The Hilltoppers also have no lights-out scorers but have enough capable scorers, enough size and play good enough defense to hang with just about anyone. They’ve held opponents to less than 50 points 12 times. They got to the sectional with a 58-45 semifinal win over sixth-seeded Menomonie, who Medford beat 46-33 on Jan. 18, and a 68-60 win at River Falls on Saturday.