WIAA DIV. 5 BOYS BASKETBALL - Rib Lake cruises in regional opener; tops Loggers to cap North sweep
WIAA DIV. 5 BOYS BASKETBALL
As expected, the top-seeded Rib Lake Redmen had no trouble in their WIAA Division 5 regional opener Tuesday, quickly dispatching of winless and 16th-seeded Butternut 79-24.
All 13 Redmen who played scored as the starters were in the game long enough to make sure the game was never in doubt, while the reserves logged their highest minute and, in some cases, point totals of the year.
The Redmen improved to 20-5 overall and have a much more difficult tournament weekend ahead of them.
On Friday, Rib Lake will host eighthseeded Thorp (13-12) in a 7 p.m. regional semifinal contest. The Cardinals blew out ninth-seeded Bayfield 78-53 in their regional quarterfinal Tuesday. Thorp went 4-10 in the tough Western Cloverbelt Conference but one of those wins was a 63-59 upset at conference champion Bloomer on Feb. 13.
Friday’s winner will face either fifthseeded Flambeau (15-10) or fourth-seeded Owen-Withee (16-9) in Saturday’s regional final, also set for 7 p.m. with the higher seed hosting. Rib Lake beat Owen-Withee 66-58 way back on Dec. 5. The Blackhawks took third in the Eastern Cloverbelt at 9-5 and own quality wins over teams like Lakeland, Phillips, Thorp, Neillsville and Colby.
Butternut, at 0-24, does not fall under the high-quality category as Rib Lake ran out to a 38-4 lead and eventually a 4611 halftime advantage. Seth Borchardt scored eight of his 13 points at the start of the second half to push the lead to 58-13 and, with just over four minutes gone in the half, Rib Lake’s starters were done for the night.
Senior Michael Butler took advantage of his minutes by scoring 11 points and grabbing a team-high seven rebounds. Dominic Quednow scored 11 and Jed Henderson hit double figures with 10 points and he had six rebounds. Jackson Blomberg scored six points.
From there, chipping in to the offensive total were Jackson Schutt and Talon Scheithauer with five points apiece, Andrew Wudi and Brady Heiser scored four each, Xavier Johnson hit a secondhalf 3-pointer, Chris Krause and Corey Fuchs each had a basket and Jeremy Wiitala added a free throw. Fuchs had six rebounds, while Wudi and Heiser had four each. Wudi had four assists and Scheithauer had three. Borchardt had five steals.
Owen Dennis led the Midgets with 15 points.
The weekend’s regional champion will play in a March 7 sectional semifinal currently scheduled to be played in Medford.
Rib Lake 74, Phillips 60
Scheithauer was on fire early in Thursday’s regular-season finale, keeping Rib Lake in it, then when the rest of the Redmen started clicking it was over for visiting Phillips in a 74-60 final.
With the win, Rib Lake finished a perfect 10-0 against Marawood North teams and 12-4 overall in Marawood Conference contests. The Redmen won the North Division by a five-game margin over Prentice and Phillips was six games behind at 6-10.
Scheithauer scored 18 points while making six of seven shots from that field. He drilled all three of his 3-point attempts, all of which came in the first half. He scored 10 of Rib Lake’s first 14 points, but Phillips was hot as well in that time and led 23-14. Quednow’s offensive rebound led to Scheithauer’s second 3-ball of the half, which was answered by a triple from Logger Lane Abraham to make it 26-17.
Then it was Borchardt’s turn to give the Redmen a spark.
His steal and score was followed by his 3-pointer, cutting the Logger lead to four. Rib Lake’s third sophomore in the rotation, Henderson, got a three-point play and Borchardt then got a steal in the backcourt and got a layup off that to put Rib Lake in front 27-26 with 3:56 left in the half. The Redmen never trailed again, going on a 23-2 run to lead 40-28 at the half.
Blomberg hit a 3 and scored in transition off a Donovan Sutherland assist to start the second half and the offense rolled from there, leading by as much as 28 at 72-44. Despite the sluggish start, Rib Lake shot 47.5% from the field (29 of 61) and hit nine of 18 3-pointers. Being able to get out and run led to statistical wins in key areas such as transition points (15-2), points off turnovers (25-10) and points in the paint (38-24).
Rib Lake had assists on 24 of its 29 field goals.
Blomberg scored 15 of his 17 points in the second half and added five rebounds and four assists. Borchardt wound up with 13 points on five-of-six shooting and five steals. Sutherland had 10 points, six assists and four rebounds. Quednow added nine points, six rebounds and four assists.
Henderson finished with five points and five boards. Fuchs got the last basket, banking in a short turnaround jumper with 1:22 left. Wudi had seven assists and six rebounds.
Drew Hauschild led the Loggers (12-12) with 20 points, eight rebounds and five assists. Brayden Revak and Shay Denzine scored 11 apiece.
