Raiders run win streak to eight by beating ranked Xavier Hawks

MEDFORD BOYS BASKETBALL

SPORTS EDITOR

Peyton Kuhn poured in a game-high 26 points and Medford’s defense, despite some foul trouble, controlled a highpowered offense most of the way Monday in a 74-65 quality non-conference win at Appleton Xavier.

The Hawks who typically feature one of the state’s top scoring offenses were held to their second-lowest total of the season by the Raiders, who slowly but steadily fought back from an early 11-2 deficit to take a four-point halftime lead and then never trailed in the second half.

Xavier (5-4) came in as state’s eighthranked Division 3 team, according to the WisSports.net coaches poll. The Hawks were the second straight state-ranked team Medford defeated. The Raiders (8-0) went for three in a row Tuesday when they hosted Division 4’s seventh-ranked team, Edgar, in a game played after this week’s early holiday deadline for The Star News.

The solid defensive effort included just two points allowed in transition and 16 forced turnovers. The statistic, however, that quickly catches the eye is that Xavier made just eight of 32 3-point attempts (25%).

“If you contest shots and wear teams down like we do on both ends of the floor, it affects teams,” Medford head coach Ryan Brown said. “Defensively, it took us a little while to really figure them out, like I think it does for teams with our offense. It’s hard to do those things in practice. They did get a couple of open looks early. But as we continued to wear them down, I think the shots got a little bit quicker, maybe they start coming a little bit deeper.”

Medford also made eight 3s but needed 11 fewer shots to do it. Kuhn made four of eight triples and was seven of 15 overall from the field. Brown credited Xavier for taking any open looks away from Kuhn early. But, eventually Medford adjusted and got their leading scorer some room to work.

“Eventually we were able to run some good actions and do some things to get him going,” Brown said. “That was important.”

TheoneHawkwhodidhavelong-range success was Charlie Pfefferle, who hit five of 10 3-point tries and finished with 23 points. He converted a three-point play and hit a long ball to cap the 11-2 gameopening run. Brady Hupf slowed Xavier’s momentum by scoring three times in the paint and Kuhn hit his first 3-ball in a 9-3 surge that got Medford right back in it at 14-11. Another Pfefferle 3 helped Xavier stretch a late lead in the first half to 26-20, but Kuhn hit two free throws with 2:07 left, Joe Sullivan fed Hupf for a bucket, Kuhn scored in the paint as did Ty Baker and Kuhn got a steal and score with nine seconds left to give the Raiders their first lead at 30-26.

Xavier scored twice to tie it at 30-30 to start the second half, but two Logan Baumgartner free throws and then backto- back left wing 3-pointers from Nate Retterath that hit nothing but net opened up a 38-30 lead with about 14 minutes remaining.

“Nate hit two big 3s,” Brown said. “I thought those really settled the whole team down. I know they really got the bench fired up and defensively they brought the energy up. Nate’s a guy who’s happy playing his role of being physical and getting the ball to the open guy, but he can take the ball to basket and hit an open 3 and that’s exactly what he did there. Those were big.”

The Hawks whittled the lead to 40-37, but Medford went on another surge that ultimately created the distance it needed to secure the win.

Kuhn started it with a 3-pointer, which was answered by an Anthony Peters score. However, the Hawks received a technical foul for delay of game and Kuhn swished the free throws. Hupf missed a layup off a quick pass from Kuhn, but he got the putback to go. Baumgartner’s baseline feed to Aiden Gardner put Medford up by 10 and the Raiders made the Hawks pay for a turnover, taking the ball to the other end and getting a top of the key 3-pointer from Joe Sullivan to extend to a 52-39 lead with 7:44 to go.

The lead got as high as 15 at 63-48 on two Kuhn free throws with 4:12 left. The Hawks didn’t quit, going on a 13-4 burst that included 3-pointers from Carson Hehli and Pfefferle. A Pfefferle free throw made it 67-61 with 2:17 left. Baker hit two of four free throws, followed by an Alex Sherwood score that made it 69-63 with 1:05 left.

But a Hupf basket capped a nice press break by the Raiders and Baker’s threepoint play with 32 seconds left iced it.

Hupf scored 14 points for Medford and Brown said his offense gave the Raiders an important inside-outside balance. Baker scored nine and Retterath, Baumgartner and Sullivan scored six points apiece. Owen Wipf and Gardner were key off the bench with four and three points respectively.

“Owen Wipf and Aiden Gardner and the minutes they provided off the bench were huge,” Brown said, noting their defensive work was huge while taking up minutes for Baumgartner and Retterath, both of whom fought foul trouble. Sullivan also added his normal energy off the bench.

Hupf and Baker grabbed eight rebounds each as the Hawks held a slim 33-32 edge in that department. Baumgartner dished out seven assists and blocked two shots. Kuhn had a team-high three steals.

The Raiders shot 46.2% overall from the field (24 for 52), made 18 of 22 free throws (81.8%) and turned the ball over 14 times.

After Tuesday’s Edgar game, the Raiders look forward to getting back into Great Northern Conference play with a trip to Northland Pines Tuesday and a home game with Mosinee on Jan. 8.

Nate Retterath