RIB LAKE GIRLS BASKETBALL - Wrong turn for Rib Lake with 3-game slide

RIB LAKE GIRLS BASKETBALL

A stretch in the girls basketball schedule where Rib Lake thought it could do some damage instead went the other way on the Redmen with three straight losses.

The last of those came Tuesday when arch-rival Prentice had the last push in an entertaining back-andforth battle, outscoring host Rib Lake 10-2 down the stretch to earn a 64-57 win.

Prentice earned a split with Rib Lake in the season series and pulled into a fourth-place tie with the Redmen in the Marawood North standings. Both teams are 4-10 each with two Marawood games to play. Prentice improved to 8-13 overall, while Rib Lake sits at 7-13.

Prentice’s junior standout Kali Heikkinen was the difference maker, pouring in 28 points for the winners, including the go-ahead 3-pointer that put the Buccaneers in front 57-55 with just over three minutes to play. Her bomb from the right corner answered a 3-point shot by Emma Tlusty that had just put Rib Lake up 55-54 at the 3:29 mark.

Unfortunately for the Redmen, this time they did not have a response in them. The Redmen hurt themselves with a handful of turnovers down the stretch. Prentice got a Lydia Harding rebound bucket off a Kylie Orysen miss, the second time that happened late in the game, with 1:45 left and Leah Nehls swished two bonus free throws with 1:14 to go to make it a six-point game. Shots by Addison Gumz and Josie Scheithauer bounced off the rim and single free throws by Nehls and Heikkinen with 40.3 and 29.8 seconds left sealed the deal.

Nehls also had a big night for Prentice, scoring 19 points.

Prentice had the game’s first surge, jumping out to a 13-5 lead. Rib Lake whittled away at that lead and tied it at 17-17 on back-to-back 3-pointers from Madilyn Blomberg. The Bucs went back up by five, but Rib Lake reeled them in, taking a 29-24 lead on triples by Avery Niemi and Gumz and a steal and score by Kiana Dallmann. Rib Lake led 31-28 at the half.

Tahlia Scheithauer’s 3-pointer to open the second half gave the Redmen their biggest lead at 34-28, but Heikkinen hit two 3s and Nehls added one to put Prentice on top 39-36. Niemi tied it with her second 3-ball off a left sideline inbound pass. Back-to-back 3s from Josie Scheithauer and Gumz put the Redmen ahead 45-43. The teams then went back and forth before the Bucs took charge in the last three minutes.

Gumz led Rib Lake with 17 points, while Josie Scheithauer and Tlusty scored nine points each. Blomberg and Niemi totaled six points apiece with their 3s. Dallmann and Tahlia Scheithauer finished with three points each. Prentice’s 1-3-1 zone limited Rib Lake’s ability to get inside and held Tessa Weik to four points.

Tuesday’s game started a season-ending stretch of five home games for the Redmen. Rib Lake hosts Stratford tonight, Thursday, in a Marawood Conference crossover. Mellen and Tomahawk are in for non-conference games Monday and Tuesday. Monday’s game starts at 6:30 p.m., while Tuesday’s game tips at 7:15 p.m. The Redmen host Marawood North champion Phillips to close the regular season on Feb. 15.

An inspired defensive effort in the second half Monday by Rib Lake limited host Abbotsford to just 15 points. Unfortunately for the Redmen, they couldn’t buy a basket either after halftime and fell to the Falcons 51-32.

Rib Lake scored just nine points in the second half and made only two shots from the field, making it impossible to overcome the 36-23 lead Abbotsford built in the first half.

Going with their man-to-man defense through most of the second half until trying some trapping late, the Redmen forced several turnovers and limited the Falcons to just seven made shots from the field in the last 18 minutes.

The second half certainly contrasted from the first half when both teams had things rolling at times. Rib Lake had just one lead at 4-2. The Redmen made a run after falling behind 12-6 with a 3-pointer from Josie Scheithauer and her end-to-end drive off an Abbotsford turnover, making it 12-11.

That’s when the Falcons went on the key run of the game, rattling off an 18-9 surge that opened up a 36-20 lead. Neveah Treankler had six of those points, Sydney Falteisek hit a 3 that made it 21-13, Sommer Brodhagen had five points, including a 3 and her steal led to a 12 basket that got the lead to double digits at 27-16. An uncontested 3 from the left corner by Celia Schindler capped the run and may have provided some of the halftime fuel for Rib Lake to tighten up its defense in the second half.

Weik hit a long two-point to start the second half and get Rib Lake within 11, but it took the Redmen about nine minutes to hit another field goal and by then, they were doomed. A Falteisek 3 made it 43-26 before Josie Scheithauer finally made Rib Lake’s last field goal of the night.

Dallmann led Rib Lake with eight points, all in the first half. Weik and Josie Scheithauer scored seven points each. Tahlia Scheithauer scored four, Niemi had three points, Tlusty added two free throws and Gumz had one.

Falteisek led Abbotsford (6-8, 10-10) with 17 points, while Brodhagen scored 14.

Newman 59, Rib Lake 46

On Thursday, Rib Lake got off to an awful start at Newman Catholic, fought all the way back to take the lead but then wilted midway through the second half in a physical 59-46 loss to the Cardinals.

Senior Ashley Jankowski muscled her way to a gamehigh 18 points and grabbed 11 rebounds for the Cardinals, while some of the game’s biggest shots were hit by sophomore guard Lily Shields, who scored 14 points and dished out six assists.

One of those key shots by Shields was a nearly 60-foot heave at the halftime buzzer, which took some of the steam out of Rib Lake’s comeback from a 14-0 deficit to start the game. Rib Lake thought it was headed to the locker room after Weik’s free throws with 2.4 seconds left put the Redmen up 22-21, but Shields was left unguarded and was able to throw up the shot from just beyond halfcourt and banked it in to put Newman up 24-22.

Weik scored off a pick-and-roll with Gumz to start the second half and Gumz swished a 3-point shot three minutes in for a 27-26 lead, but that would be Rib Lake’s last lead. Jankowski scored the go-ahead basket off an inbound play, Evie Bates scored off a give and go with Jankowski and Shields sank a 3 to put the home team up 33-27. Weik sank two free throws with 11:08 left. Newman’s Aubrey Puent and Blomberg exchanged 3s, but Shields came back with another 3, her fourth of the game, Jankowski got an offensive stickback and assisted on another Puent scored. Jankowski got loose again inside for a 45-32 Newman lead with seven minutes left and Rib Lake was unable to make a serious run at the Cardinals from there, falling behind by as many as 16.

Bates had a 10-point, 10-rebound double- double for Newman, while Puent also scored 10.

Feeling this was a Marawood crossover it could win against the Cardinals, who were 4-14 coming in, Rib Lake instead saw Newman come out of the gates as the aggressors. Newman set the tone with strong rebounding and getting after loose balls with Jankowski scoring seven of her points in the opening 14-0 run.

Rib Lake finally got on the board almost six minutes in on a Niemi 3, which was answered by a Puent triple. But then the Redmen settled in. A 1-2-2 trapping half-court defense got Newman out of rhythm and the Redmen found their shooting tough in the last 10 minutes of the half, getting long two-point shots from Blomberg and Josie Scheithauer and 3s from Gumz and Josie Scheithauer to get within 19-15. Tlusty grabbed a loose ball and raced to the other end for a score. Scheithauer’s short shot put Rib Lake up for the first time 20-19 with 52 seconds left in the half.

Scheithauer led Rib Lake with 13 points, while Weik added 11 points and eight rebounds. Gumz and Tlusty scored six points each. Tlusty had six rebounds. Blomberg and Niemi scored five apiece with Niemi having four rebounds. Tahlia Scheithauer had four assists.