RIB LAKE GIRLS BASKETBALL - Redmen hang tough in first halves, run out of gas in second halves

RIB LAKE GIRLS BASKETBALL

For the second time in four days, Rib Lake’s girls basketball team hung tough with a strong Marawood South opponent into the second half, but the Auburndale Eagles wore down the Redmen on the boards and on defense Monday to pull away for a 49-35 crossover win.

The Redmen know they are going to face full-court pressure whenever they see the Marawood’s best and Monday was no exception. For one half, the Redmen handled it quite well, not only getting the ball into the front court, but attacking the rim when they had opportunities, resulting in a couple of one-point leads. At the half, Auburndale held a slim 22-19 advantage.

Tessa Weik’s three-point play made it 26-24 with 14:25 to play in the second half, but Auburndale freshman Rose Hasenohrl immediately answered with a 3-pointer. From there, Rib Lake’s shots started coming up short, the turnovers got more frequent and rebounds became hard to get on both ends of the floor. Auburndale, a team just as young as Rib Lake with several sophomores and freshmen getting varsity time along with one senior, outrebounded Rib Lake 48-33, got 21 of those rebounds offensively and pressured the Redmen into 21 turnovers.

An early 5-0 run that included an Emma Tlusty free throw and baskets by Tahlia Scheithauer and Addison Gumz pushed Rib Lake to an 8-7 lead, but that was wiped out by a 6-0 Auburndale run. Rib Lake came right back with six straight on scores by Kiana Dallmann, Josie Scheithauer and Tlusty on an end-to-end drive to take a 14-13 lead with 8:10 left in the half.

Scheithauer’s basket gave Rib Lake its last lead at 16-15. Kylie Anderson had five key points for Auburndale, including a 3, as the game neared halftime. Josie Scheithauer’s late bucket made it a threepoint game at the half.

After Weik’s three-point play, Rib Lake went scoreless for more than nine minutes, finally getting back on the board with 5:05 left on two Josie Scheithauer free throws. By that time, Auburndale (7-0 Marawood, 10-3 overall) had the game in hand at 44-26. The Redmen shaved the lead down to 13 at 46-33 with just under two minutes to go.

Josie Scheithauer led Rib Lake with 13 points. Weik scored six and Avery Niemi added five. Tahlia Scheithauer chipped in with four points, Emma Tlusty scored three and Addison Gumz and Dallmann added first-half baskets.

Weik grabbed nine rebounds for the Redmen, Josie Scheithauer had six and Niemi pulled down five. Tlusty had three assists, while Tahlia Scheithauer and Niemi had two apiece. Josie Scheithauer and Gumz had two steals each. Rib Lake turned Auburndale over 16 times.

Anderson led Auburndale with 11 points. Myah Katzenberger, a freshman, added nine.

Neither team shot particularly well from the field. Auburndale was 29.9% (20 of 67) and Rib Lake was 26.1% (12 of 46). Rib Lake had a slight edge at the free throw line, making 11 of 17, while the Eagles were seven of 12.

Rib Lake, now 3-6 in the Marawood and 5-9 overall, starts its second round of Marawood North play Friday by hosting Chequamegon at 6:30 p.m. They’ll get a tough rematch with Athens at home on Tuesday. Tip time for that game is 7:15 p.m.

Royals 75, Redmen 35

The constant defensive pressure from the state’s top-ranked Division 5 squad eventually wore down Rib Lake Friday in a 75-35 final, but this game at Wisconsin Rapids Assumption was one of those cases where the final score was not indicative of how the majority of the game played out.

Rib Lake fought back from an early 11-point deficit to get within two and three at different points late in the first half and trailed just 30-23 at the break. The Redmen were still within 34-27 with 14 minutes to play when the dam finally burst following a 3-point shot by Jordyn Jaglinski and then a flurry of steals created by the Royals’ 1-3-1 pressure. The lead shot to 47-27 in a three-minute stretch and ultimately the run hit 41-5 before Josie Scheithauer ended the game with a 3-pointer.

Even in the first 22 minutes, the Royals forced Rib Lake into its fair share of turnovers, but the Redmen were solid defensively and got enough rebounds to complete defensive stops. Offensively, when they beat Assumption’s pressure, they worked the ball nicely in their half-court offense and got good looks inside.

Tlusty scored on two tough drives, Tahlia Scheithauer fought inside for an early cutback and Weik added a hoop to keep Rib Lake within 10-8 early. Jaglinski sandwiched two 3s around a Sarah Shaw triple to make it 19-8, but that’s when Rib Lake clawed its way back.

It started with Gumz finding a cutting Dallmann for a basket. Weik got some work done inside, hitting three of four free throws and adding a cutback of her own miss. Dallmann scored again at the 4:35 mark, making it a 19-17 game.

The Royals went back up by nine, but Rib Lake fought back again. Tlusty and Weik sank bonus free throws. Weik scored off a Tlusty assist and was fouled. She missed the free throw, but Rib Lake was within 26-23 with 50 seconds to go. The Royals, though, got an inside score from Lydia Smits and a steal and score from Shaw with 11 seconds left to go up by seven.

Josie Scheithauer and Tlusty scored early in the second half to keep Rib Lake close for those first four minutes until things unraveled.

Weik scored all of her team-high 11 points in the first half. Tlusty scored nine, Josie Scheithauer scored five and Dallmann scored four. Tahlia Scheithauer, Niemi and Isabelle Gumz added two apiece. Weik added 13 points for a double-double. Tahlia Scheithauer had six rebounds, Niemi had five. Tahlia Scheithauer had two assists.

Rib Lake dominated Assumption with a 37-22 rebounding advantage. But 33 turnovers led to 35 Royals’ points off of those miscues.

Shaw led Assumption with 19 points, Jaglinski hit four 3s while scoring 18 points, while Rylee Stublaski and Addi Vollert added 11 apiece. The Royals improved to 12-0 Monday with a big 52-45 non-conference win over Neillsville.