straight points to go up ….
straight points to go up 35-28, forcing Medford to play catch-up the rest of the way. Free throws by Baumgartner and a Rudolph triple made it 37-34 with 12:57 left, but Central got a tip-in by 6-7 Bennett Fried. Baumgartner’s 3 made it 4037, but Meyer scored. A Charlie Gierl 3 made it 44-42, but Meyer countered with a 3 of his own. Frankie Wilk answered Hraby’s three-point play with a longrange bomb and Meyer scored as well. A Williams steal extended the lead to 54-47, but Medford got bonus free throws from Baumgartner and a triple from their leading scorer after a big hustle rebound from Rudolph to make it a 54-52 game with just over four minutes left. But Meyer scored out of a timeout and, after a Baumgartner miss, Williams capped a patient possession with a driving layup to make it 58-52 with 2:05 to go. The Raiders thought Meyer got away with a pushoff, but there was no call and the play ended with a Fried baseline slam dunk that made it 60-52 with 42 seconds to go and sealed it, though Medford did pull within 62-58 on a Baumgartner 3 with 17 seconds left.
“I loved our effort,” Brown said. “I loved how we had the lead at halftime and were battling on both ends of the floor. I thought there was a period there in the second half where we were really winning our one-on-ones (defensively) and where we didn’t need to have the help come over. If we play them again, that’s going to be huge.”
Baumgartner scored 21 points, Metz had a strong game with 14 points, six rebounds, two steals and two assists and Kleist had 11 points and five boards. Rudolph scored five points and had three assists. Hraby was held to four points but had three assists. Gierl scored three.
Williams added 22 points for La Crosse Central.
“I’m disappointed because I know we’re right there,” Brown said. “You can only have morale victories for so long and stay with these teams. I get it, they’re good, there are a lot of athletic college-level players there, but we have the team to do it. We just have to keep working and take what we can from this and realize now it just makes the road a little tougher. If we get to it, we’re going to be playing those teams on the road (in the post-season).”
Medford 93, Tomahawk 30
Virtually everything went according to plan Friday as Medford jumped ahead of Tomahawk quickly, allowing for ample playing time on Parents’ Night in a 93-30 rout of the Hatchets, who remained winless in the GNC.
Medford hit 17 of 41 shots from the field, including five of 17 3s, turned 13 Tomahawk turnovers into 14 points and outrebounded the Hatchets 27-14 while building a 48-12 halftime lead. Baumgartner scored 18 of his 24 points in the half, while Kleist scored eight of his 13 and Gierl added six in the half.
Medford opened the second half by continuing to experiment with its 1-3-1 zone and was able to get more turnovers and runouts out of that to easily reach the 40-point margin necessary by the nine-minute mark to put the running clock into effect.
Hraby scored 11 of his 16 points in the second half. Gierl finished with 11 and Rudolph hit two of his three 3-pointers in the game at the start of the second half and finished with nine points. Metz scored nine points as well. Nick Steliga hit a first-half 3-pointer, senior Vincent Seidel started the game and hit two early free throws and Anakin Stokes, Carson Carbaugh and Conner Klingbeil added second-half baskets.
Medford shot 50.7% from the field (36 of 71) and held the Hatchets to 27.5% (11 of 40) and forced 24 Tomahawk turnovers. Medford outrebounded Tomahawk 42-24.
Metz led Medford with 10 rebounds, Kleist had nine and Hraby grabbed six. Hraby dished out seven assists and Kleist had three. Kleist and Baumgartner had three assists each.
Gavyn Palmer led Tomahawk with 13 points.
