Redmen separate from Abby in a hurry after half

RIB LAKE BOYS BASKETBALL

The Abbotsford Falcons may have been physically bigger, but Rib Lake’s speed and athleticism won out in the second half Tuesday and propelled the Redmen to a 76-49 Marawood North road win.

Of course, dropping in a bunch of 3-point shots didn’t hurt either.

Down 28-27 at halftime, Rib Lake pulled away from Abbotsford in a hurry in the second half, going on a 41-12 blitz that made it 68-40 and easily assured the Redmen would get their third road win over a North opponent in as many tries.

Rib Lake’s Marawood record is 3-3, good for a second-place tie with Prentice in the North Division, a game and a half behind 4-1 Athens.

The Redmen played well early Tuesday, building a quick 16-7 lead, but they went cold for a spell offensively and Abbotsford took advantage temporarily, getting some post points from big Adam Diedrich down low and 11 points during a half-ending 21-11 surge from AJ Brodhagen.

Rib Lake took a look at using a 1-3-1 zone late in the first and went to it more in the second half and it paid dividends as the Redmen got into some passing lanes and pried the ball loose at times when collapsing on post entries. However they got their turnovers the Redmen got out and ran, scoring 16 transition points and 17 points off turnovers in the second half.

They also sank six of their eight made 3-pointers in the second half. No shooter found his stroke more than senior Tanner Vlach, who poured in 20 of his 22 points in the second half, including four 3s. Jackson Blomberg hit the other two 3s in the half and burned Abbotsford repeatedly inside and out to also score 22.

Vlach’s first 3 opened the second half and put Rib Lake in front for good. His second 3, which came off Blomberg’s rebound off his own miss made it a 40-32 game, but Abbotsford’s Brandon Diedrich came right back with a 3 to tighten things at 40-35. That’s when the Redmen broke it open.

Blomberg scored on the baseline off an Andrew Wudi assist, Blomberg got a three-point play off an offensive rebound, Vlach hit a 3, Donovan Sutherland scored off a steal and Vlach’s steal led to a Michael Borchardt score that opened up a 52-35 lead. Blomberg’s steal led to a Sutherland score, Blomberg hit a 3, Vlach scored four more points and Sutherland added two off a Blomberg steal to widen the lead to 28.

Blomberg had 11 rebounds to complete a double-double and had five assists. Vlach had seven rebounds, five assists and three steals. Sutherland scored eight of his 10 points in the second half. Borchardt added eight points, five rebounds and three assists. Dominic Quednow hit the game’s first 3 and finished with five points and two assists. Dalen Gebauer had a three-point play in the first half. Wudi had a bucket, four rebounds and three assists. Michael Butler and Joseph Treffinger added their first varsity hoops late.

Brandon Diedrich led Abbotsford (0-5, 1-7) with 17 points, while Brodhagen finished with 13.

Rib Lake, now 4-3, looks to break out of its pattern where it wins a game, then loses, if it can get its scheduled nonconference game at Pittsville in tonight, Thursday. The Redmen are then off until Jan. 6 when they host Wisconsin Rapids Assumption.

Athens 67, Rib Lake 53

Rib Lake could have bumped up into first place in the Marawood North Friday, but defending champion Athens wasn’t ready to give up that spot and used a big mid-game run to take out the host Redmen 67-53.

Neither team came out hot offensively, but Rib Lake went extremely cold after taking a 15-9 first-half lead. Athens outscored Rib 15-4 to end the half with a 2419 lead and then started the second half on an 18-0 run, capped by three straight 3-pointers to make it 42-19 and put it out of reach.

Athens is now 4-1 in Marawood play after beating Phillips on Tuesday and is 6-1 overall.

Defensively, the Redmen did an admirable job in keeping Athens’ powerful 6-5 senior post Aiden Janke dominate inside, although he did grab 16 rebounds and finished with 16 points. However nine of his points came on three 3-point shots. He hit one for the first points in the game and he drilled two in his team’s big run to start the second half.

Athens was seven of 20 from 3-point range, compared to four of 15 for Rib Lake, a key 12-point advantage for the visitors.

However, the big key, arguably, was Rib Lake’s inability to finish. The Redmen cut and passed their way to some good looks in the paint, but the shot chart shows just 13 of 37 shots in the lane fell for them and most of those were in transition in the latter stages of the game when their cranked-up defensive pressure made some things happen. But the deficit by then had gotten too big. Overall, Rib Lake was 15 of 44 from two-point range (34.1%) and finished at 32.2% from the field overall.

Rib Lake held a 5-4 lead six minutes in and then got on a nice run to go up by six. Blomberg scored, Talon Scheithauer sank a free throw and Borchardt’s cut through the lane was rewarded with an assist from Sutherland to make it 10-4. Quednow scored to answer an Andrew Schaer 3 and relentless offensive rebounding led to Wudi’s 3 that countered a Janke putback.

But Riley Schultz-Becker hit from long range for Athens and that started the run that changed the game. Connor Sheahan and Schaer drove the lane for late scores that put Athens up by five at the half. Schaer had seven points and Janke had eight in the 18-0 run that put the game away.

Rib Lake got a big game from Vlach, who had 14 points, three rebounds and led the second-half defensive effort with six steals. Blomberg led the Redmen in scoring with 15 points and added three rebounds and two steals. Wudi had eight points and two boards. Borchardt finished with six points, seven rebounds and four steals. Sutherland had four points and a team-high 10 rebounds. Quednow had three points and five rebounds. Scheithauer finished with three points.

Sheahan made nine of 11 free throws and finished with a game-high 22 points for Athens. Schaer added 15 points.

Big road win

On Dec. 13, Chequamegon tested Rib Lake’s interior defense, but the Redmen held up well enough on that end of the floor and got two big three-point possessions late to outlast the host Screaming Eagles 64-59 in a key early-season Marawood North road win.

With the game tied 50-50 and less than five minutes to play, Rib Lake took the lead for good when Quednow grabbed an offensive rebound, kicked the ball out to Vlach on the perimeter and found Borchardt cutting through the lane. Borchardt scored, was fouled and finished off the three-point play. After Isaiah Deitz hit two of four free throws to pull Chequamegon within one, the teams traded defensive stops, then Vlach confidently drilled a 3-point shot from the right wing to give Rib Lake a 56-52 lead that widened to 59-52 following a Borchardt free throw and Sutherland’s score off a Wudi rebound and long outlet pass with 2:03 left.

Rib Lake sealed things at the free throw line from there to pick up its second Marawood North road win of the season.

This was an entertaining battle throughout. Rib Lake settled for several early 3-point shots that didn’t fall and Chequamegon took advantage by building a 15-5 lead. Despite Blomberg and Sutherland both picking up two quick fouls, the Redmen hung in there and eventually found their shooting stroke. Vlach hit a pair of 3s to pull Rib Lake within 19-17 and Scheithauer’s triple cut it to 21-20. Blomberg gave the Redmen a temporary 22-21 lead with free throws, but the Eagles ended the half on a 5-1 spurt, capped by Deitz jumper in the final seconds, to lead 26-23.

Deitz, a 6-6 first-team All-North selection a year ago, and Dawson Heizler, a 6-7 senior forward, carried Chequamegon’s offense in the second half. The Redmen did some solid man-to-man work in the first half, with Sutherland and Quednow getting most of the work against Deitz. Rib Lake relied mainly on its 1-3-1 zone from late in the first half through the second half. Heizler’s physicality on the low block was a tough matchup for the Redmen and he finished with 22 points and 14 rebounds.

Deitz had a game-high 24 points and he had 14 rebounds, several of which came on the offensive end in the second half.

But Rib Lake’s offense wound up being more balanced and overcame those two players.

Vlach led four players in double figures with 16 points. He hit three of seven 3s, grabbed seven rebounds and had four assists. Blomberg scored 14 points, including a key 3-pointer off a Sutherland steal that put the Redmen up 45-43 with 7:20 left. He had three rebounds and an assist. Sutherland held his own in the paint with 13 points, seven rebounds and he had three steals at the top of Rib Lake’s zone.

Borchardt added 10 points and had three rebounds, three steals and two assists. Wudi scored all six of his points at the free throw line on eight attempts and had five rebounds. Scheithauer had three points, Quednow had a bucket, three rebounds and two assists.

Four days after not shooting a single free throw at Marathon, Rib Lake was 20 of 29 from the line, while Chequamegon was 10 of 19.

Medford’s Skylier Krueger gets tripped up by the Northern Edge’s Ella Koca and draws an interference penalty with 2:22 left in the game Tuesday, setting up a power play for the Raiders with the game tied at 3-3. Unfortunately, the Raiders didn’t take advantage and wound up losing in the final minute.MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS