Wildcats muscle past Raiders, who also dominate at Pines
MEDFORD BOYS BASKETBALL
The Medford Raiders held a late 44-42 lead at River Falls Tuesday, but the host Wildcats got it done down the stretch with an 8-0 finishing run to win 50-44 in a physical battle between two teams carrying hopes of making runs in their respective sides of the WIAA Division 2 sectional in a couple of weeks.
Neither team shot the ball particularly well against the other’s strong manto- man defenses. The Wildcats outscored Medford 8-1 from the free throw line, got nine key points off Medford turnovers and got some big offensive rebounds and putbacks, none bigger than Ethan Campbell’s stickback off a missed bonus free throw by teammate Ryan Langer with 34 seconds left that put River Falls up 48-44. Medford turned the ball over on its ensuing possession, sealing its first defeat after seven straight wins.
The Raiders fell to 15-6 overall, while River Falls is 17-4.
“They are a super physical team,” Medford head coach Ryan Brown said. “They fight through screens. They play old-school defense where they bump cutters off screens. They’re just a physical, physical team. We don’t mind playing that way and we have no problems with how the game was called. We learned that we need to get tougher when we play teams like that.”
Both teams contested shots well enough to keep each other’s shooting percentages low. Medford finished just 34.7% overall (17 of 49) and the Wildcats were at 41.7% (20 of 48), including just two of 21 from behind the arc. The big key River Falls outrebounded Medford 41-23 with 14 of those boards coming on the offensive end, leading to 16 secondchance points. Brown said statistically, this year’s Raiders are better than last year’s sectional team in many categories against what most would agree has been a tougher schedule. One of those areas of improvement has been rebounding, but River Falls certainly had the edge Tuesday.
“We’ve been good. We know how to get the ball,” Brown said. “For us to only have 16 defensive rebounds and seven offensive, River Falls just did a really good job on the boards.”
Medford did most of its offensive damage from the 3-point line, making nine but it took 28 attempts. Triples by Charlie Kleist, Zach Rudolph and Tanner Hraby helped the Raiders grab an early 17-11 lead and Caleb Guden made it 19-13 on a short pull-up jumper. River Falls got its first triple from Jacob Landgraf, which was answered by a Logan Baumgartner 3. However, the Wildcats finished the first half with a 5-0 spurt that put them ahead 24-22 at the break. Another 7-2 surge to start the second half made it 31-24 before Medford got on a run.
It started with two Baumgartner 3s, the second of which was a tough shot from the left side with a hand in his face to pull the Raiders within one. Baumgartner tied the game with a free throw at the 12:14 mark, then banked in a tough runner from the right side to put the Raiders ahead 33-31 with 11:10 to go.
River Falls got its second and final 3 from Joey Butz to go back in front. That shot started a 9-0 run that put the Wildcats back up by seven.
The Raiders crept right back in it, on a tough shot at the rim by Joe Sullivan, though he missed the “and-one” free throw, and a 3 by Hraby, making it 40-38 with 6:42 left. Hraby hit another long ball to put Medford back on top 41-40 with 5:38 to play. He missed a triple that would’ve put the Raiders up by four. River Falls got a Langer bucket off a Preston Johnson assist, but Baumgartner’s 3-pointer put the Raiders on top 44-42 with 4:12 left.
Johnson’s backdoor cut tied it with an assist from Langer with 3:30 to go. It stayed that way until Campbell’s free throws put River Falls ahead with 2:02 left. A minute-long possession by Medford ended in a good look for Hraby from the right corner, but it rimmed out. Thanks to Campbell’s big putback 30 seconds later, that was Medford’s last shot at taking the lead.
Brown said Campbell’s wasn’t by luck. He had seen on film, the Wildcats have some effective tricks for getting those boards and have burned good teams with them. The Raiders did well against them until the last one.
“I give Campbell credit,” Brown said. “He made a good swim move and got to the baseline side and the ball was right there.”
Baumgartner’s 17 points led all scorers. Hraby scored nine with his trio of 3s. Sullivan was held to eight, Kleist and Rudolph scored three points apiece and Brigham Kelley and Guden added two points each.
Michael Schurman led the Wildcats with 14 points, while Campbell had 13. Sullivan had nine rebounds for Medford and Baumgartner had five. Hraby had four assists.
The Raiders will finish their Great Northern Conference schedule and get one more shot to add to their post-season seeding résumé Friday when they host league champion Mosinee for Parents Night at 7:15 p.m. The Indians come in at 21-1 overall and 10-0 in the GNC. They beat an ice-cold Medford team 52-40 on Jan. 11.
“This will be another test to see where we’re at,” Brown said. “It’s another big, physical, defensive team. We’ll see how much we’ve improved. Hopefully we’ll play well and got another shot at them in a regional final or sectional semifinal.”
Mosinee figures to be the top seed in the WIAA Division 2 half-bracket with Fox Valley Lutheran, Medford and Shawano jockeying for position behind the Indians.
After the post-season brackets are released on Sunday, Medford wraps things up with non-conference games at D.C. Everest on Tuesday and at home against Hurley on Feb. 24.
Medford 82, Pines 57
In what Brown called one of the most complete games he’s seen one of his teams play, the Raiders were impressive on both ends of the court and took it to host Northland Pines 82-57 to avenge a Jan. 22 home loss to the Eagles and take over second place in the conference.
The big three of Baumgartner (28 points), Hraby (25 points) and Sullivan (20 points) were all clicking, leading the Raiders to 53.4% shooting from the field, including an outstanding 15 of 27 from 3-point range (55.6%) and an excellent 1.44 points per possession.
The Raiders forced 18 turnovers and scored 20 points following them and got 15 offensive rebounds, leading to 17 second- chance points. The defensive effort was a big step up from the first meeting, when Medford gave up 76 points, by far the most they’ve given up to a GNC opponent.
“The guys were just locked in and were focused on fixing the things defensively that we didn’t do well the first time,” Brown said.
It started with excellent rim line protection from start to finish. The Raiders did a much better job of keeping Pines to one side and forcing them to attack baseline. The other big thing that was lacking the first time was help from the weak side on post feeds. This time, the Raiders swarmed the ball whenever it got down low.
Offensively, the Raiders came out firing, taking a 13-2 lead behind a Baumgartner 3, an offensive stickback from Guden and two 3s from Hraby. The lead got to 20-7 before the Eagles whittled it down to five on three occasions, the last being 31-26 on a Griffin Steimke 3 with 6:00 left in the first half.
But Baumgartner hit a little pullup jumper and then pulled up and hit a straight-on 22-footer to get the lead back to 10. Hraby later hit a right-wing 3 behind a Rudolph screen to make it 41-30, then he drilled another from the top of the key behind a Guden screen for a 44-- 32 lead. Sullivan’s offensive rebound and reverse layup made it 46-32 at the half.
Baumgartner and Hraby hit 3s early in the second half to get the lead to 17. Baumgartner got a steal deep on the defensive end, passed ahead to Guden who fed Sullivan for the layup and a 58-39 lead. Sullivan then stroked back-to-back 3s with just under 12:00 to go to open up a 64-41 bulge. Sullivan made a highlightreel play moments later, driving into the lane with his left hand, then spinning and banking in a shot. Hraby followed that up with a triple off a Sullivan kickout for the knockout punch that made it 69-44.
“Offensively we were taking great shots,” Brown said. “Whether it’s a miss or make, we like to see us taking great shots and we were making a lot of great shots. We were sharing the basketball, guys were confident in taking shots in a big road game. We were 15 of 27 from 3.”
The patience stood out in the latter stages of the second half when the five Raiders on the floor, on their own, simply worked the ball around for nearly two minutes, refusing to force a bad shot.
Medford had a 31-22 edge in rebounds and was led by Sullivan with seven, Baumgartner with six, Kelley with five and Guden with four. Sullivan had eight assists, Guden had four and Hraby and Baumgartner had three each.
Baumgartner was 11 of 14 from the field, including five of seven from behind the arc. Hraby was seven of 13 from deep and Sullivan was nine of 15 overall.
Quinton Tlusty scored seven late points, including a 3.
Pines got 17 points, including five 3s from Steimke, 13 from Nolan Lurvey and 12 from Ryan Muench. After a 64-60 win over Rhinelander Monday, the Eagles sit a half-game behind the Raiders in the GNC standings at 7-3 with games remaining against Lakeland and Antigo.
