Rib Lake holds off Prentice in league play, gets stung by Hornets

RIB LAKE GIRLS BASKETBALL

Playing on back-to-back days after two and a half weeks off, the Rib Lake girls basketball fixed some of Monday’s wrongs and turned them into positives while earning a hard-fought 51-47 win at Prentice Tuesday night.

The Redmen returned to the site of their WIAA Division 5 regional semifinal win from last February and won another thriller against their neighboring rivals to improve to 2-3 in Marawood Conference play and 3-6 overall.

The two biggest areas of improvement from Monday’s non-conference loss in Colby to Tuesday’s win came in the rebounding and ball handing departments.

“Defensively we did a much better job of rebounding and holding Prentice to just one shot, which was big as this game was close throughout,” Rib Lake head coach Wayne Mann said. “Offensively we did correct our turnover problem as we went from 20-plus on Monday to 11 total in this game. Hopefully we can take that positive into Friday’s game against Wisconsin Rapids Assumption.”

Rib Lake’s rebounding also was strong on the offensive end, helping create more shot opportunities. Rib Lake knocked down seven 3-point shots in the win, though it took 29 attempts to do it. Four of which came from leading scorer Danielle Mann. The sophomore finished with a 20-point, 11-rebound double-double.

Sophomore Josie Scheithauer connected on a pair of 3s as well and added 12 points in the win. She had four rebounds. Junior Kamy Annala made an impact with six points and nine rebounds. She hit a 3-point shot.

Molly Heiser had five points and seven rebounds. Addison Gumz had four points, seven rebounds and two steals in the win. Lauren Pelnis had four re- bounds and a steal.

Rib Lake made 10 of 40 two-point shots and 10 of 21 free throws.

“Our shooting percentages will hopefully improve as we get back from Christmas break,” Wayne Mann said. “It sure was nice to see the girls get a conference win and nice to see the JV get a nice victory too.”

Friday’s game at Assumption won’t be an easy one. The 8-2 Royals remain one of the top teams in the Marawood South. The contest is game one of a girls/boys doubleheader between the schools and is set to start at 5:30 p.m.

Rib Lake makes a cross-country trip to Gilman on Monday for a 7:15 tip time before starting a short but difficult stretch of three Marawood games in five days on Jan. 13 against Phillips, Marathon and then Phillips again.

On Monday, the host Colby Hornets had the last surge in a back-and-forth contest and pulled out a 53-46 win over Rib Lake in non-conference play.

Colby took the lead for good with just under five minutes left, pulling away from a 44-44 tie. Angelique Hernandez led the Hornets’ last surge, scoring all six of her points in that run.

Before that, the lead changed hands several times as both teams looked to get back into rhythm after extended holiday breaks.

For Rib Lake, the offense had a mix of good and bad in the team’s first game since Dec. 17.

“Colby came out with full-court pressure and we didn’t handle it at all,” coach Mann said. “As a team, we can’t have 20plus turnovers and expect to win games. We did improve at the free throw line (11 of 16) from the past few games and shot more free throws than the past few games, which is a good sign that we are becoming more aggressive at the basket.” Colby jumped ahead early, but Rib Lake hit some early 3s to take a 14-11 lead. The Hornets found the next wave of momentum, going on a 15-2 tear to grab a 26-16 advantage with just under five minutes to go, but Rib Lake worked its way back into it, pulling within 27-23 by halftime.

Danielle Mann had the hot hand early for Rib Lake, downing four 3-point shots in the first half, while Rebekah Strobach added another. Annala scored all four of her points for the night in the half as well.

Rib Lake took a short-lived 32-30 lead early in the second half and from there, things went back and forth before Colby put it away late.

“Defensively, we let them get multiple shots on their end of the court,” Wayne Mann said. “We’ll need to work on holding them to just one shot.”

Mann led Rib Lake with 15 points, all on 3-point shots. Heiser scored all seven of her points in the second half, including three-of-three free throw shooting. Tia Bube scored all six of her points in the second half as well. Emily Rodman added four points. Scheithauer hit a second-half 3, while Strobach and Pelnis also finished with three apiece and Gumz put in a second-half free throw.

Hayden Willner led Colby with 13 points, eight of which came in the first half. Kya Viegut added eight.