Prentice gets last points to win good battle with the Redmen
RIB LAKE BOYS BASKETBALL
The Rib Lake Redmen battled back from a nine-point second-half deficit to tie Monday’s game with Prentice on Andrew Wudi’s three-point play with 1:01 to go, but the Buccaneers’ difference-maker Ashton Makovsky scored the go-ahead basket 15 seconds later and his free throws sealed his team’s 58-54 win in a battle for second place at the mid-point of the Marawood North season.
Despite missing a chunk of the second half with four fouls, Makovsky, a physical senior inside presence was tough for the Redmen to handle, scoring 19 points and adding 11 rebounds. His go-ahead score came on rebound off a miss by his teammate Layne Blomberg and his two free throws with 2.7 seconds left ended it and came after Prentice had been just seven of 23 from the line before that.
The Redmen dropped their third straight game to fall to 4-6 overall and went to 3-5 in the Marawood Conference. Prentice went to 4-4 in league play and 7-4 overall. Both teams have a long way to go to catch Athens, who leads the North at 6-1 and is 9-2 overall.
“It was a good game,” Rib Lake head coach Todd Henderson said. “We just missed some free throws and had some untimely turnovers. When we did get a steal, we’d turn it right back over at some point. We just didn’t capitalize.”
After Makovsky put the Buccaneers in the lead, Wudi missed a 3-pointer for Rib Lake, but Prentice threw the ball away, giving the Redmen another shot. Out of a timeout with 15.5 seconds left, Wudi worked off a high double screen and got into the lane but his shot bounced off the back iron and into Makovsky’s waiting hands.
“That’s what we were looking for,” Henderson said. “We wanted to get a double screen and have him attacking toward the hoop. Either that or get into a pick and roll. It looked like the drive was open. You’re hoping to get a foul or an and-one or something like that. It didn’t quite go in.”
Wudi had a tough shooting night, but his one made shot from the field was a big one, coming on a baseline drive from the left side and a pump fake that created a hoop and harm to tie it. Evan Lord’s bank shot high off the glass gave Prentice a 51-42 lead with 5:50 left, but Tanner Vlach’s 3-pointer started Rib Lake’s late rally. Michael Borchardt sank two free throws with 5:02 left to cut the deficit to four, but Layne Blomberg grabbed a defensive rebound and sprinted to the other end to score for Prentice. Vlach’s steal and score with 2:17 left cut it to four again at 53-49. Makovsky made a free throw with 1:55 left, but Donovan Sutherland’s tip-in got Rib Lake within three and a Prentice turnover set up Wudi’s tying three-point play.
Prentice led virtually the entire first half, trailing only once at 7-6 on a Sutherland rebound basket. The Bucs led by as much as 10 at 27-17, but Rib Lake clawed back within 31-26 by halftime thanks to a couple of corner 3s from Dominic Quednow. The Redmen took a 32-31 lead on a driving score from Borchardt and Wudi took a charge to give Makovsky his fourth foul with 14:30 to go. With him on the bench, Rib Lake did nudge out to a 37-34 lead on a Jackson Blomberg 3, but Lord hit two huge 3s for Prentice and Ty Heikkinen added another to give the Bucs a 43-37 lead with less than 11 minutes to go.
“They had some guys step up and they did a good job of slowing down the pace of the game,” Henderson said. “You could tell they were trying to drag it out. We were trying to pick up our intensity on defense a little bit. (Makovsky) is a tough kid to defend. You have to try to help down from the right guy because they have a couple good 3-point shooters. They shot well from 3 tonight.”
Prentice hit seven of 19 3-point tries, while Rib Lake was seven of 23 from long range. Rib Lake was a bit better than Prentice at the free throw line, making nine of 15. Rib Lake held a slight 38-35 edge in rebounds and turnovers also were close with Rib Lake losing the ball 16 times and Prentice losing it 14 times. Rib Lake was just 12 of 34 on two-point shots, including 10 of 22 from either low block area of the lane.
“We just have to consistent,” Henderson said. “We have some mental breakdowns yet or we rush some things sometimes. And we have to finish. We had a few of those shots go around the hoop. We needed a couple of those.”
Jackson Blomberg led the Redmen with 12 points and had seven rebounds. Borchardt had nine points and eight boards. Quednow and Sutherland had eight points each with Sutherland grabbing eight rebounds. Vlach also had eight points. Wudi scored six and had four rebounds, four assists and two steals. Dalen Gebauer hit a first-half 3.
Lord, a freshman, had 13 points and nine rebounds for Prentice. Layne Blomberg scored 16.
Rib Lake starts the second half of Marawood North play Friday by hosting Phillips at 7:15 p.m. Rib Lake hosts Colby in non-conference play Monday and goes to Auburndale for a Marawood crossover on Jan. 19.
“Not quite halfway through the season,” Henderson said. “There’s still time to improve and get better.”
Royals 63, Redmen 51
On Friday, Rib Lake led by seven at halftime and by 10 early in the second half, but Wisconsin Rapids Assumption came roaring back, outscoring the Redmen 37-15 in the last 16 minutes to take home a 63-51 Marawood crossover win.
In a physical battle that featured 50 free throws –– 27 of which were missed –– the Royals took over the game in the second half with some key 3-pointers early, then some big offensive rebounds and they used their quickness, especially from guard JT Schlaefer to get to the rim.
While Assumption wasn’t great from 3-point range, making five of 20 attempts, the Redmen were ice cold making just two of 20 long-range tries and missed all 12 of their second-half tries and just couldn’t get the big shot to slow down As-sumption’s momentum.
Rib Lake played solid basketball and never trailed in the first half. Blomberg hit an early 3 and Quednow got a friendly roll on a driving shot to help give the Redmen a 14-9 lead eight minutes in. Assumption cut it to 16-14 on consecutive Schlaefer drives, but Vlach’s steal and score sparked another run by the Redmen. Borchardt sank two bonus free throws, Vlach drilled a 3 and added two free throws 18 seconds later for a 25-15 lead with 4:12 left in the half. Assumption got on a little run to get within three, but Talon Scheithauer beat the Royals’ defense to the rim for a transition score, Vlach hit two free throws with 1:07 left and Wudi scored off a steal to put Rib Lake in front at the half 31-24.
Borchardt scored off a backcourt steal and Vlach converted a three-point play and a hard drive to the rack for a 36-26 lead with 16:27 to go. But that’s when the Royals turned things around.
It started with a triple from Ryan Shaw. Buckets from Nick Leberg and Schlaefer made it 36-33, but Vlach hit a shot off a glass to temporarily stop the run. Schlaefer’s steal and score, however, got the Royals back on track. Shaw hit a free throw to end a possession where the Royals got several offensive boards, then he scored again to tie it at 38-38 and Schlaefer gave the Royals their first lead at 40-38 on a drive to the basket. Sutherland answered with his own driving layin, but Blake Lobner then hit back-toback 3s, one from each side of the floor to put Assumption up 46-40 with 8:07 to go and the guests never trailed again.
The lead hit 11 at 56-45 on a Francis Matott basket with less than five minutes to go. Rib Lake got it to seven and had possession on three occasions, but couldn’t dent the lead any more than that.
Vlach led Rib Lake with 18 points and added three rebounds and three steals. Sutherland finished with 10 points and eight rebounds. Borchardt had seven points, six rebounds and two steals. Wudi had seven points, three rebounds and three steals. Blomberg had 12 rebounds to go with five points. Quednow had two points and four boards. Scheithauer had two points.
Schlaefer led the Royals with 15 points, while Shaw just missed a double-double with 14 points and nine rebounds. The Royals made just 12 of 34 free throws, but that was enough to hold off Rib Lake at the end. Rib Lake was 11 of 16 at the line, but shot just 32.2% overall from the field (19 of 59). Assumption outrebounded Rib Lake 49-38.
