WIAA DIV. 2 BOYS BASKETBALL - Medford goes cold at wrong time; season ends at New Richmond

WIAA DIV. 2 BOYS BASKETBALL

When a team has played some of its best basketball as an underdog yet still finds itself down by nine at halftime, it’s usually not a good sign for that underdog.

That’s the position the sixth-seeded Medford Raiders found themselves in Friday at third-seeded New Richmond in a WIAA Division 2 regional semifinal that turned into a 71-40 runaway for the host Tigers in the second half.

In many ways, the barometer for Medford’s season was its shooting. Unfortunately, this was one of those nights where the Raiders didn’t find the range, shooting just 26.7% from the field, and that wasn’t going to be nearly enough against a solid Big Rivers Conference squad on its home floor, especially one that put 105 points on the board when the teams met on Dec. 21.

“Honestly I thought the whole first half we did what we wanted to do defensively,” Medford head coach Ryan Brown said. “We really tried to compete on the boards. We outrebounded them in the first half. We did a good job. We tried to keep the ball as much as possible out of (Reis) Hidde’s hands. The two guys that killed us last time, Hidde and (Connor Raleigh), they combined for 59 points last time. This game we held them to a combined 12.”

In fact, neither Hidde, who had 35 points in the first meeting, and Raleigh, who had 24, scored in the first half.

Medford jumped out to a 7-0 lead and still led 12-6 when a couple of open looks from 3-point range from Conner Klingbeil and Hayden Koester didn’t drop. Koester’s in particular was one that rattled in and out. That was just the start of an ice-cold stretch from the field that lasted well into the second half. Six minutes into the second half, Medford trailed 44-21.

“Our biggest problem was we just couldn’t put the ball in the hoop,” Brown said. “I thought we got good shots in the first half. We had opportunities at the basket or from 3 and even from the free throw line and we just didn’t capitalize on those. I think that was a little discouraging to probably play, in some ways, as well as we could on the defensive end and to still be down by nine points. That was tough. In the first half, in a lot of ways, I thought we played great basketball. We just couldn’t put the ball in the hoop.”

In the Dec. 21 meeting in Medford that the Tigers won 105-80, New Richmond made an amazing 19 3-point shots, including 14 in the first half alone. Brown said going into Friday’s game that New Richmond’s offense had become more inside-based since then and that proved to be the case. Twenty-three of New Richmond’s 30 field goals were two-point makes.

Aidan Eckert led New Richmond with 13 points. Jack Charbonneau scored 10 and reserve Alex Aune went on a personal 10-point run that included two 3s late in the second half. George Schroeder had nine points.

Koester and Klingbeil hit 3s to help push Medford to its 12-6 lead. Tanner Hraby scored twice to keep the Raiders close to even and Koester hit another triple early in the second half to make it 28-20. Hidde got his first basket by crashing the offensive boards, Raleigh got a three-point play off a steal, Schroeder got a rebound bucket and Raleigh sank a 3-ball to make it 38-20 and send the Tigers off and running.

“I thought we were playing at a high level,” Brown said. “In the second half I was a little worried because I knew how much effort we put into the first half and that’s kinda what happened. We still tried to battle, but eventually their size and athleticism kinda won over on the boards and getting points in the paint.”

Hraby scored 16 points to finish his stellar career with 1,346 career points. He pushed past Steve Russ (1,341) on Medford’s record board and now sits third on the school’s all-time scoring list behind Logan Baumgartner (1,749) and Peyton Kuhn (1,464). Hraby had four rebounds and three steals in the loss. Koester’s two 3s gave him six points. He had three rebounds and two blocked shots.

Carson Carbaugh, Nick Steliga and Owen Stockwell scored four points each. Stockwell led Medford with eight rebounds. Klingbeil finished with three points and Nick Krause hit a late 3 for Medford’s last basket of the season.

New Richmond outrebounded Medford 43-29 while shooting 50.8% from the field (30 of 59), including 23 of 35 on two-point shots. Medford was 16 of 60 overall from the field and four of 10 from the free throw line.

“(Making shots) loosens you up and it tightens them up,” Brown said. “When you don’t make them pay on a turnover or never make them pay from the free throw line or whatever, they never tighten up or have to have a sense of urgency and we do because we felt like we had to make everything. And that’s been our issue against some of these big teams all year is being able to make shots. When we make shots early, we can stay in games. We saw how much that can have an impact in our games against Mosinee and Rhinelander.”

New Richmond finished the year 18-8 after losing 77-50 at its conference rival River Falls in Saturday’s regional final. River Falls (19-7) plays Wausau East (19-7) in the sectional semifinal tonight, Thursday, at Eau Claire North.

Medford finished 12-14 after a 1-7 start. The team certainly will have a new look next year with seven seniors –– Hraby, Stockwell, Steliga, Klingbeil, Carbaugh, Logan Gubser and Brayden Balciar –– graduating.

“I’m proud of them,” Brown said. “After that first third of the season, I thought we played some really good basketball. Going through some injuries and some different things we kept at it. The guys came in every day and worked hard, the seniors worked hard and we gave ourselves a lot of chances. We ended up 12-14, we easily could’ve had 15 wins or something like that. They put themselves in the race for the GNC. They did a lot of really good things when they could’ve mailed it in. I’m definitely proud of them.”

Hayden Koester