OH, SO CLOSE
Raiders push Central to final minute in D2 sectional final
The Medford Raiders hit their first five 3-point shots to provide early hope and they went on a 10-0 run midway through the second half to cut La Crosse Central’s lead to two and restore belief.
Ultimately, just not quite enough shots fell for the underdogs to take down the top-ranked Riverhawks in Saturday’s WIAA Division 2 sectional final played in Eau Claire North’s Doghouse.
The early shooting barrage put Medford ahead by six points on two occasions, but once Devon Fielding’s 3-pointer put Central ahead 19-17, the Riverhawks (27-1) never trailed again in their 56-47 win that sent them to their fifth WIAA Division 2 state tournament appearance since 2016 and their 24th straight win.
Central, however, no doubt left the gym knowing these Raiders were for real, having been pushed to the final moments twice by them. Medford finished with a 21-7 record, including a 13-2 mark since Jan. 25. The Riverhawks also outlasted visiting Medford 74-68 in a Jan. 15 non-conference game.
“I couldn’t be more proud of them,” Medford head coach Ryan Brown said as fans slowly filed out of the Doghouse. “I wish we could’ve found a way. I feel like we did everything we could. A couple more shots just needed to fall for us.”
With Central’s defense anchored by players such as 6-5 Noah Campen, 6-5 Porter Pretasky, 6-5 Colin Adams and 6-6 Bennett Fried, it was no secret that Medford was going to need outside shots to fall to be there at the end with a chance to win it and would have to convert the few inside opportunities they might get. The Raiders hit 11 of 29 attempts from 3-point range for a respectable 37.9% success rate.
In the post-game discussion, the Medford coaches and players were left wondering what might have been had one or both 3-point shots they took when they were down 47-42 had fallen. A try by Logan Baumgartner came up short with 2:50 left and an attempt by Tanner Hraby hit the back iron at the 1:30 mark.
“Sometimes they go in a bunch in a row and sometimes they don’t,” Brown said. “In the second half they were so close. Maybe that’s a little bit due to Central’s athleticism and length. Maybe it’s a little bit of tired legs. Honestly, they’re in and out. You get the right roll and they fall in. Really, we’re down five and we get Tanner a great shot and it’s in and out. You cut it to two and the pressure you put on them and how this place gets going, you never know what’s going to happen.”
“I’m proud of every one of (my teammates),” senior Brigham Kelley said. “We all came out here battling. It was just amazing to be in this situation. We haven’t been in here in what, 39 years? To be the team to get back here and compete with a very well-coached, very wellplayed team, it was just awesome.”
“There’s not anything I would’ve changed. There’s not anything I would’ve done differently,” Brown said. “We just needed a couple more to fall or maybe a couple to rim out for them.”
Compan takes over
Any early-game jitters for Medford were replaced by adrenaline when Hraby knocked down his first two 3-point tries to put the Raiders up 6-0 and then Baumgartner hit back-to-back-to-back attempts for a 15-9 edge. Two of his triples came from the left side and the third came from the top of the key after Adams lost him by overplaying a passing lane. Obviously, that pace was not going to continue for 36 minutes, but it was important to get early shots to fall.
“That was big,” senior Joey Sullivan said. “I knew we were going to have to come out and make some shots. They were falling right away. We weren’t able to get them all down the stretch, but having those kept us in it. We stayed in this game the whole time. We had a lead in the first half but they made shots too.”
In first half, Compan did the majority of the shot-making for Central. The 6-5 forward, who finished with a careerhigh 26 points, scored 15 of Central’s first 21 points. Most came at the rim off hard drives or assisted cuts, but he also hit a 3-pointer in that run.
Compan wasn’t even starting the first time the two teams played, but he’s been big for the Riverhawks down the stretch, averaging nearly 16 points per game in the team’s last 12 wins.
“We knew (Compan) was kind of going to be the X factor just with how he’s played about the last five, six games,” Brown said. “Ever since he’s moved into the starting lineup, he’s been a huge X factor.”
After the hot start, Medford cooled off from the outside making one of its last seven 3-point tries in the first half. Sullivan got the make, pulling Medford within 21-20 with just over seven minutes left. Fielding answered that with a 3, he hit two free throws after getting an offensive board with 6:26 left and Fried sank a 3-pointer with 2:25 left to put Central up 29-20. Sullivan scored inside for Medford, but the Riverhawks got a big bucket at the buzzer to go up 31-22 when Nic Williams caught his own deflected pass and flipped it in for his only points of the game.
Brown said Central made some offensive adjustments from the first meeting that took advantage of some room along the baseline.
“What made it hard was they made adjustments from last time where they flared the backside a lot,” he said “So you had to be rim line and ready to get there on the baseline drive. But you also had to be ready to rotate versus the screens on the skip. I thought early on in each half there were a couple of times where we were slow to get there. In the paint, but they’re so big and athletic they’re just going to jump over you. We had to meet them outside the paint. I thought when we made our run in both halves, we were there and we were smashing down hard and we were boxing out and getting boards.”
“They’re so physical, so athletic and they’re always in good position,” Sullivan said of Central’s defense. “They’re always up in your face. You really have to move the ball, make cuts in and out and try to do what you do better. Try to be a step ahead. They’re tall, athletic, physical. They’re really good.”
Making a run
Central’s lead stayed between eight and 10 points in the second half until Baumgartner’s attempted save on a ball heading out of bounds landed in Williams’ hands and he fed Compan for an easy bucket that made it 41-29 with 10:20 left.
Medford countered when Sullivan tipped the rebound on his inside miss to Charlie Kleist for a front rim lay-in. Out of a Medford timeout with 9:44 left, the Raiders got a defensive stop and Baumgartner put back a missed 3 by Hraby to cut the lead to eight.
Baumgartner then came up with one of Medford’s top defensive highlights of the game, rejecting Compan on the left baseline. Caleb Guden grabbed the defl ected ball, passed it to Sullivan, then got the ball back from Sullivan for a wideopen look at a transition 3 and nailed it.
“We were able to come down and make a couple of shots,” Sullivan said of the comeback. “It started on the defensive end and making stops there, getting the smashdown, getting them to throw it out of bounds and for us to come down and make some shots, make a 3, find a groove.”
Fielding missed an open 3 from the left corner and Hraby buried one from the right side off a skip pass from Baumgartner and just like that, it was a 41-39 game.
“We all believed in each other,” Kelley said. “We all knew what we had to do to get our shooters open and get the shots and hope that they all went in. Some didn’t though, but that’s basketball.”
With Medford’s student section reaching a fever pitch, Adams threw up a 3-point airball, but the 6-2 Fielding grabbed the rebound and, after a patient Central possession, used a Compan screen to get to the rim and roll in a short shot. After a tie-up on Medford’s offensive end, Fielding hurt the Raiders again on the other end, cutting along the baseline and scoring off a Williams assist to make it 45-39 with 5:40 left.
Fried extended the lead going coastto- coast off a defensive rebound, but Sullivan nailed a left-wing 3 to make it 47-42 with 5:00 left. That’s where the score stayed for nearly four minutes as Medford missed the two key 3-point tries and Central burned clock, but also turned it over twice. Kleist got a charge call and Guden tipped away an inbound pass. Central had just four turnovers in the game, all of which came in the second half.
‘They had zero turnovers at half,” Brown said. “We had to just dig down. A lot of those guys had put in 25-30 minutes and against a team with that sort of athleticism and to get up and get in there and try to create some stuff, it just speaks to their heart and how much they wanted it.”
Compan hit two bonus free throws with 1:09 left and Pretasky hit two more with 1:01 to go to make it 51-42. Baumgartner hit a 3-point shot from the left corner and was fouled by Adams with 54.7 seconds to go. He missed the free throw, but Fried missed his bonus throw after the rebound and Sullivan drove through the lane and scored to keep hope alive at 51-47 with 41.1 seconds left.
But that basket would be Medford’s final score of the year and the Riverhawks closed it out by making five of six free throws.
“Obviously you just give these guys credit,” Brown said. “They never give up. That’s been the theme we’ve wanted from kids before them for the last number of years, being relentless and never give up. They believe in what we do and they knew if we get a couple to start falling down it changes the game.”
Baumgartner led Medford with 19 points, eight rebounds and three assists. Sullivan had a hard-earned 14 points to go with two rebounds and two assists. Hraby had nine points, Guden had three points and two assists and Kleist had two points and three rebounds.
Fielding had 14 points for Central, Williams had six assists and five rebounds and Compan added eight rebounds. The Riverhawks shot 51.3% overall from the field (20 of 39) and 11 of 15 from the free throw line. Medford was 17 of 43 overall from the field, including six of 14 inside the arc. Baumgartner shot all three of Medford’s free throws, making two.
The Raiders only turned it over five times and hung with the Riverhawks on the boards, who had a 24-19 rebounding edge. Amazingly in the two meetings, the teams combined for a grand total of 19 turnovers, 10 by Medford and nine by Central.
“I’m so proud of my team to make it here and to do what we did all year,” Sullivan said. “It started off rough. Our first scrimmage was here. We played in the Doghouse and let me tell you that did not go well. Brown had a couple of doubts I’d have to say right off the bat. For us to stick with it and know we’ve got something special with this group and know when we play hard, it’s a chemistry that’s different than most years. It was special. For us to play this good and make it this far, it’s amazing.”
“They reminded me of (the first scrimmage) the other day and of just how far they’ve come,” Brown said. “I can’t say enough about them. They’re hardworking, humble, coachable kids and I told them this isn’t your highlight. High school basketball is amazing. You’re great kids so you need to go out and be great, great young men and great fathers one day. You’re going to have bigger highlights in your lives, but I’m just so proud of them.”
La Crosse Central drew the second seed at the state tournament and will play third-seeded Westosha Central (25-2) at about 3:15 p.m. Friday in the second semifinal game. Defending state champion and top-seeded Pewaukee (25-3) gets fourth-seeded Ashwaubenon (24-4) in the 1:35 p.m. semifinal. The state championship is set for 6:35 p.m. on Saturday.
Medford’s Brigham Kelley and Tanner Hraby defend the paint against La Crosse Central guard Nic Williams during the second half of Saturday’s WIAA Division 2 sectional final, won by the Riverhawks 56-47. La Crosse Central ended the regular season ranked first in the state in Division 2 by the Associated Press and ranked second in the WisSports.net coaches poll.MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS
