MEDFORD BOYS BASKETBALL - Raiders take GNC lead into Mosinee Friday; win 2 of last 3

MEDFORD BOYS BASKETBALL

To beat a team of Onalaska’s caliber, the Medford Raiders need to be at their best and they weren’t Tuesday as 26 turnovers and some defensive and rebounding breakdowns allowed the host Hilltoppers to coast to a 60-37 nonconference win. Save for an early run of four 3-pointers, Medford trailed by double digits throughout while falling to 9-7 overall. The Hilltoppers made six of their eight 3pointers in the first half while building a 36-14 halftime lead. Ian Kowal made three of his four 3s in the first half and finished with a game-high 18 points as Onalaska improved to 12-4.

Onalaska quickly jumped ahead 7-0. Will Daniels got Medford on the board with a 3-pointer, but five Kowal points and two Broden Steiner free throws opened up a 14-3 Onalaska lead less than five minutes in.

Hayden Koester knocked down a triple and, after a Tyson Hughes score, Jason Woller came off the bench and buried two more 3s to get Medford within 16-12.

But Onalaska slammed the door on that Medford run quickly, going on a 17-0 tear that was basically the difference in the game. While Medford couldn’t dent Onalaska’s 3-2 and 2-3 zones, freshman Tyler Kowal, Noah Chenault and Ian Kowal all knocked down 3s at the end of the run, which was finally ended by a Koester basket. But that was answered by Trent Oyen’s 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer.

The closest Medford got in the second half was early at 38-19 on a Charlie Gierl 3-pointer. That was the only basket of the night for Medford’s leading scorer.

Koester continued his knack this year for stepping up against Medford’s top competition. He had 15 points and seven rebounds. After Woller’s six points and five rebounds, scoring was scarce as Daniels, Gierl and Peyton Ried each hit one 3-pointer. Sam Hierlmeier also added one late for the senior’s first basket of the season. Devin Dassow made two secondhalf free throws and Dylan Frey added a late basket off a Daniels assist. Dassow had five assists and Gierl had three.

Steiner had 13 points for the Hilltoppers, including two dunks. Brendan Chenault added 11. Twenty of Onalaska’s 36 rebounds were offensive.

Medford hoped to shake Tuesday’s loss off quickly as a big Great Northern Conference matchup looms Friday at Mosinee. While Medford currently leads the GNC at 6-1, Mosinee was responsible for that loss in December and can jump right back in the race with a win. The Indians come in at 12-5 overall and 4-2 in league play, a half-game behind 5-2 Rhinelander.

Medford will travel to Altoona (7-8) for non-conference play on Tuesday.

Medford 58, Lakeland 46

It wasn’t easy either night, but Medford finished off back-to-back home games with a second win Friday, downing Lakeland 58-46 to start the second round of Great Northern Conference play. Even better Friday was Antigo’s 70-62 upset win over Rhinelander, which put Medford in sole possession of first place in the GNC.

The first time Medford played Lakeland on Dec. 6, the Raiders jumped out to a big lead early and coasted most of the way. This time, Lakeland made things more difficult, but a 26-7 surge bridging the two halves created enough separation for the Raiders.

“We found a way to win,” Medford head coach Ryan Brown said after the win. “I thought we did a good job on the boards tonight. We were battling. (Lakeland’s Evan) Zoch really does well down there. When they did get an offensive rebound, they scored. But I thought that was key. If we don’t rebound, we lose to them. (Thursday) night we didn’t rebound great, but overall we were pretty good with the turnovers. Tonight was kind of the opposite. We turned it over too much tonight, too many footwork things.”

Medford finished with 20 turnovers, 12 of which came in the second half, preventing the Raiders from fully breaking the game open. Lakeland, who was noticeably more aggressive on the defensive end than it was in the first meeting, got the 44-26 deficit it faced after Medford’s big run, down to 53-44 with a little more than two minutes left.

“It’s going to look like a grinder when you turn the ball over and you don’t get shots,” Brown said. “When we get shots, we’re a pretty good shooting team. But we have to be stronger with the basketball. Then when we did get opportunities, we did miss a lot of bunnies. You have to be able to execute. We knew Lakeland was going to be physical and be active. They were physical and played hard and that will do a lot of good things for you.”

Woller gave Medford an offensive jolt, scoring all nine of his points on three firsthalf 3-pointers. The last two were back-toback, turning a 21-20 deficit into a 26-21 lead. Nick Krause, who led Medford with 21 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for a double-double, had a big finish to the half, nailing a 3, then scoring on a backdoor cut and beautiful pass from Dassow and hitting another 3-ball with three seconds left off a kickout from Dassow.

Dassow had one of his better games. He did not miss a shot, going four for four from the field and made all four of his free throws for 12 points, plus he had six rebounds and three assists.

“Jason Woller plays hard on defense,” Brown said. “His effort has been good and his energy. He’s one I trust. He’s done a pretty job of taking care of the ball. He might be one we have to go to late in the game. He does a pretty good job of seeing the slip and some of our other things too.

“Devin understood the hot hand,” Brown added. “There were one or two occasions where he got it to Nick. We ask a lot of him as a freshman and he’s hanging in there. He’s getting better each game. There are just some little things defensively he’s working on. He’s wanting to learn and get better with them.”

Krause hit two more 3s to start the second half and Dassow’s rebound basket after a Daniels steal and breakaway chance gave Medford its 18-point lead.

Those three guys picked up the slack on a rare off-night for Gierl (eight points) and Koester (five points). Ried added a firsthalf 3-pointer and Daniels had four assists and two rebounds. Koester had nine rebounds and Gierl had seven. Geierl had three assists.

Zoch led Lakeland (2-5, 5-9) with 10 points and nine rebounds, but Medford limited Lakeland’s top athlete to four-of-12 shooting from the field. Alton Jackson hit three 3s for nine points.

Medford finished with a 38-26 edge in rebounds, including 17 on the offensive end. Lakeland was held to nine offensive rebounds.

Raiders 67, Orioles 57

Rebounding was a struggle Thursday, but the Raiders were better from 3-point range and outshot Stanley-Boyd 67-57 in non-conference play at Raider Hall.

The Orioles, who fell to 9-5 overall at the time, made things challenging behind 6-7 sophomore Charlie Hoel and 6-6 freshman Josiah Demske. Hoel had a game-high 24 points and pulled down nine rebounds, seven of which came on the offensive end. Demske had just six points, but he grabbed 16 rebounds.

The Orioles outrebounded Medford 4329 with 21 of those boards coming on the offensive end, leading to 17 second-chance points. The Orioles had 38 points in the paint.

Medford, however, made 10 of 29 3point shots, while Stanley-Boyd was just three of 19 from long range for a key 21point advantage. Gierl had a huge night for Medford with 30 points. He sank six of 14 3-point shots. Krause buried a trio of 3s and added 18 points. Gierl also had eight rebounds and six assists. Koester chipped in with 11 points and had six rebounds and three assists.

“I didn’t think we were very sharp,” Brown said. “I don’t think we rebounded very well, especially when it came to just boxing out. Obviously they have some size, which is hard to go against and they crash hard. In the first half especially we weren’t getting stops. When we did get a miss from them, we weren’t getting the rebounds.”

Stanley-Boyd scored the game’s first five points and never trailed in the first half, leading by as much as seven at 13-6. Gierl and Koester hit 3s as Medford pulled even at 19-19, but the Orioles surged back ahead by five. Gierl scored Medford’s last nine points of the half, including two on a beautiful spin move and shot over Hoel and a 3-pointer. Stanley-Boyd led 33-32 at the break.

Gierl’s score to start the second half gave Medford its first lead of the game, but the Raiders didn’t take the lead for good until Krause knocked down two straight triples and scored off a steal, created by Daniels, that made it 44-37. Gierl followed with a trey to put Medford up by 10.

The lead got to 51-39 when Daniels scored on a nice spin move from the left side. But Stanley-Boyd didn’t go away and twice cut the Raiders’ lead to five with the second time being 59-54 following a Brenner Myers 3-pointer with 4:15 left. Not long after that, Fenske missed a dunk that would’ve cut it to three. Krause finally scored off a Gierl assist with 1:05 left and Krause swished two free throws with 35.3 seconds to get the lead back to nine.

“In the second half I thought we were a little better when it comes to being just solid in our stuff,” Brown said. Medford had just 12 turnovers and forced 15. “We were able to knock down some shots and we were able to string some stops together. We created more turnovers from them than they had in the first half. That was kind of the difference in the game. First half, giving them 12 offensive rebounds is not going to get it done. Second half was better.”

Daniels scored four points, Ried had three points and four rebounds and Dassow added a free throw.

Logan Gray had 12 points for Stanley-Boyd, who shot 35.8% overall from the field (24 of 67), while Medford was 24 of 52 (46.2%).

“We tried to make an active effort to run a couple of things for some guys early in the half and we kind of rolled with it,” Brown said. “Guys did a good job of executing what we wanted to do and knock down shots and were able to hold on at the end.”