Milestone hit, revenge earned in 62-39 win

BAUMGARTNER HITS MILESTONE

A milestone and a big revenge win made for a fun night for the home team Tuesday at Raider Hall.

Medford’s Logan Baumgartner became the ninth member of the school’s boys basketball 1,000-point club and the only one to do it as a junior, hitting that career mark eight minutes in by grabbing his own missed shot and putting in an easy bucket.

More importantly, that bucket capped Medford’s game-opening 19-4 run that set the tone in a 62-39 win over the Rhinelander Hodags.

With the win, Medford improved to 7-3 in the Great Northern Conference and 14-5 overall and earned its fifth straight win and seventh in its last eight outings.

It also took a little bit of the sting away from a Jan. 4 loss at Rhinelander, where the Raiders shot 29% from the field and let a lead slip away late in a 55-49 loss that ended Medford’s 29-game GNC winning streak.

“It’s really cool especially having it happen here at home with all my friends and family and all the fans,” Baumgartner said of reaching the 1,000-point milestone. “I definitely couldn’t have done it without all of them supporting me. My teammates set me up. It’s just awesome.”

One of those teammates, senior Joe Sullivan, seemed particularly determined to make sure this one wound up in the win column. He blitzed the Hodags (4-4, 8-10) for 17 points in the first half and eventually a game-high 23 while adding 12 rebounds, three steals and two assists.

“It was fun to watch him,” Medford head coach Ryan Brown said. “The combination of trying to get Logan to 1,000 at home and just what Joey did on the floor, attacking and making plays and defensively was fun. Joey was everywhere.”

Coming in with 996 career points, Baumgartner hit his first shot, a 3-pointer from the top of the key to make it 5-0 and get within one of the milestone. It took awhile to get that next shot to fall, but he did his job on the defensive end as the primary defender on Rhinelander’s top threat, senior guard Jacksen Smith and his teammates did their part on the offensive end. Tanner Hraby scored on a couple of early aggressive drives, Charlie Kleist got a stick back and Sullivan got eight quick points, including two on a fast break after Baumgartner stuffed a layup attempt by Smith.

“Coach Brown talked to me and said don’t rush it,” Baumgartner said. “That’s when you start missing shots and getting nervous and it just doesn’t happen. We just let the offense work and it turned out good.”

The big moment occurred with 10:00 left in the half when Baumgartner got the ball at the top of the key, beat Rhinelander’s Caleb Olcikas off the dribble down the left side of the lane. He missed the layup, but got the rebound and uncontested putback. Then he was congratulated by teammates, coaches and fans during an immediate timeout.

“I missed that first one, kinda got a little nervous,” he said. “But I got it back, put it in and I knew that was the basket I needed and everyone started cheering and congratulating me.

“Playing with these guys is awesome. There’s never a day where something doesn’t happen, in a good way. It’s a fun group to be around.”

Medford’s defense was solid through the rest of the half, only getting hurt by Hodag big man Jackson Zettler, who scored eight points in the half with a couple of nice post moves and offensive rebounds. Offensively, Medford patiently broke down the Hodags’ defense and opened up a 38-15 halftime lead.

“Especially for seeding this was a game we knew we had to have,” Brown said. “We weren’t happy with the result in Rhinelander. We felt like we let that one slip away, didn’t stay really patient and didn’t play real good situational basketball. So we really wanted to come out here and especially set the tone defensively and just work the ball for great shots. We know when we take great shots, we’re going to make a lot of them. It was a big game.”

“The past two years we hadn’t lost in conference so to lose that first one against them really made us look at things differently,” Baumgartner said. “We had to work at it. We weren’t just going to roll into places and win.”

The Raiders extended their lead to 47-20 on two Hraby free throws with 12:50 left. The Hodags got three 3-pointers from Will Gretzinger and two from Smith, who eventually got to 10 points after a scoreless first half, but Medford’s lead never got below 20 in the second half. Gretzinger led Rhinelander with 11 points.

“Last time we put (Sullivan) on Jacksen and he did a great job, but I think it took some of his off-ball presence away,” Brown said. “We decided to use a bigger player on him, Logan, which worked great. I don’t think Jacksen scored in the first half. When Logan got two fouls, we decided to go back to Joe in the second half. They hit some shots in the second half, but overall I thought our defense was pretty good.”

Baumgartner finished with 17 points and Tanner Hraby scored 10. Brigham Kelley, Zach Rudolph and Sam Blair each hit a 3-pointer in the win, Kleist had two points and two rebounds and Caleb Guden added a point. Kelley had four assists and three rebounds. Baumgartner had six rebounds and three assists. Hraby added four rebounds.

In the long term, the future is bright for the 6-4 Baumgartner who is regarded as one of the state’s top players in the Class of 2023. He can pretty much do it all on the court and is clearly on pace to next season break what would be a shortlived school scoring record set last year by Peyton Kuhn at 1,494 points.

“I don’t really know what made me like (basketball) a lot,” Baumgartner said. “It’s fun to play. I have a fun group of guys that make it fun for me. I have great coaches that all believe in me.”

In the short term, Medford’s focus is on making sure everything is clicking for the post-season, especially since any hopes at a GNC title ended Tuesday when 10-0 Mosinee beat Northland Pines 75-62.

“Definitely our goal is just get better every day,” Baumgartner said. “We know we can make a run through the playoffs. We just have to reach our peak and be playing good at the right time.”

The Raiders have another GNC revenge game at Northland Pines on Friday. They’ll get a good non-conference test Tuesday when they visit River Falls, who is currently 15-4 and sits in second place in the Big Rivers Conference.

The last game of the GNC revenge tour comes Feb. 18 when Mosinee comes to Raider Hall. All upcoming games start at 7:15 p.m.