Medford gives Onalaska a scare but falls short in semifinal

WIAA DIV. 2 GIRLS BASKETBALL

The Medford Raiders limited secondseeded Onalaska to one scoring run, but that run made all the difference in the Hilltoppers’ 46-37 win Friday in a WIAA Division 2 regional semifinal.

After the seventh-seeded Raiders battled back from six points down to take a 20-18 lead late in the first half, the host Hilltoppers (19-5) bridged the two halves with an 11-0 surge that put them ahead for good and sent them to Saturday’s regional final, which they won 47-34 over third-seeded La Crosse Central (17-7) to advance to a sectional semifinal contest tonight, Thursday, with fourthseeded New Richmond (19-5). The Tigers knocked out one-seed River Falls 41-38 in Saturday’s regional final round.

Medford’s season ended with a valiant effort and a 17-7 overall record.

“I liked how we prepared,” Medford head coach Jessica Faude said. “From our scouting and seeing how their team played we knew it was a team we could compete with. We tried to put our best team out there and not hold back. We wanted to attack and play aggressive and not play timid.”

Both teams played aggressive defensively in a game where the officials let a fair amount of contact go. The result was a game that featured low shooting percentages, a high number of turnovers and the possibility that one offensive surge might be enough to win it.

“I was happy with our defensive effort all the way around,” Faude said.

“We didn’t have Autumn Krause (due to injury), so we didn’t have a lot of depth, and Sierra Hanson was in foul trouble, but they worked their butts off. I was extremely happy with the work they put in.”

Scoring didn’t come easy for either team in the first 10 minutes. It took the Raiders almost five minutes to get on the board on a Marissa Fronk bucket and they were down 9-4 before Brynn Rau got a steal and score with 7:30 left in the half. Onalaska’s Devyn Schmeling hit a 3-pointer at the five-minute mark to put the Hilltoppers up 16-10 and a minute later, Hanson picked up her third foul of the half, and her second questionable touch foul, and spent the rest of the half on the bench.

Even without their senior spark plug, the Raiders got on their best run of the game.

Katie Brehm, who had eight big firsthalf points, scoring off a post feed from Laurissa Klapatauskas. Lexi Miller answered with a driving layup for Onalaska, but Brehm scored in the paint and hit two free throws moments later to tie it at 18-18. Fronk took off with the ball after gathering a defensive rebound and scored to give the Raiders their only lead of the night.

Onalaska ended the half with a key basket at the buzzer by Olivia Gamoke that came off a Raider turnover. Gamoke’s hoop sent the teams to the locker room tied at 20-20.

“At halftime, we knew they would come out strong in the second half,” Faude said. “We said they’re the ones probably getting chewed out right now because they’re probably thinking the game shouldn’t be this close. We told the girls even if they do jump ahead a little bit to not get down and keep competing. We’ve had times this year where we’ve had to chip away. We had to keep battling and stay strong.” While Medford missed all 12 of its 3-point attempts in the game, Onalaska was five of 17 and two of those makes came in the key stretch that started the second half. Molly Garrity hit the first one from the left corner and added a hoop and harm, though she missed the free throw. Gamoke added a 3-ball after the Hilltoppers secured an offensive rebound and Kenzie Miller got fouled after a steal and made one of two free throws to put Onalaska up 29-20 four minutes into the half.

Medford got within 31-25 with inside scores from Rynn Ruesch and Laurissa Klapatauskas, but the Hilltoppers countered with a baseline drive by Ava Smitih and an offensive putback by Garrity to go up 35-25. With Medford remaining cold from the field, Onalaska widened its lead to 40-26 with seven minutes left.

The Raiders made one last push, going on a 9-0 run. Klapatauskas hit two free throws and Rau got fouled on a tough baseline drive and made one of two free throws. Fronk hit a jumper and then got fouled after a steal and made the free throws with 3:42 left and Rau scored off a steal to pull Medford within 40-35 with three minutes to go.

But Gamoke hit a huge baseline jumper from the right side, the Raiders missed an opportunity to answer at the foul line and Onalaska hit just enough free throws to finish it off.

The Raiders hit just 14 of 49 shots overall from the field (28.6%), while Onalaska wasn’t significantly better at 18 of 54 (33.3%), though the five 3-pointers were crucial.

“It was abnormal for us to go 0 for 12 on 3s,” Faude said.

Medford also had chances to capitalize from the free throw line when fouls were called. While Onalaska was just five of 16 (31.3%), Medford was only nine of 22 (40.9%).

“I remember saying during the game that little things are going to be big,” Faude said. “Free throws, little bunnies that we missed, a couple of turnovers, even though they didn’t score a lot of points off our turnovers. Every little thing mattered.”

The Raiders outrebounded the Hilltoppers 47-34. Medford turned the ball over 25 times compared to Onalaska’s 19. The Raiders did well enough to get Onalaska out of its full-court pressure, but an extended 1-3-1 with some trapping in the second half caused some problems.

Fronk led Medford with 12 points and had five rebounds, four steals and two assists. Brehm added seven rebounds and two blocked shots to her eight points. Rau had seven points, a team-high five steals and six rebounds. Ruesch and Klapatauskas scored four points each. Ruesch had five rebounds, two assists and two blocked shots. Klapatauskas had seven rebounds. Hanson had two points and five rebounds before eventually fouling out.

Gamoke’s 18 points led Onalaska, who entered the game ranked ninth in the Associated Press Division 2 state poll. The Hilltoppers fell out of the top 10 in the coaches poll last week. Garrity added 12 points.

Faude said the silver lining in the loss was that it showed the Raiders are able to compete with the more decorated, bigger schools in their bracket and should be a confidence booster heading into next year. The team loses Hanson and Rau to graduation. Hanson earned second-team All-Great Northern Conference honors this year, while Rau got honorable mention.

Fronk will be the only returning senior for a team that will still be relatively young but has plenty of room to grow.

“I was really happy with the season,” Faude said, noting that the varsity group hadn’t played much ball together when the season started. “The girls saw a lot of different things throughout the year and had to adjust to some things at times. They did a nice job of that. I’m really excited for next year. Hopefully we can continue to get better.”