MEDFORD BOYS BASKETBALL - Hraby hits 1,000; Raiders get on a winning streak
MEDFORD BOYS BASKETBALL
The Medford Raiders got an individual milestone taken care of fairly quickly and took care of team business from there Friday in a 62-42 Great Northern Conference win at Northland Pines.
Senior Tanner Hraby entered the game with 986 career points and got to the 1,000 mark with a three-point play with 4:27 left in the first half. That came in the midst of one of Medford’s best stretches of the game on both ends of the floor. The 18-2 run to end the first half broke a 13-13 tie, put Medford up 31-15 at the break and the Raiders weren’t seriously challenged from there while earning their second GNC win of the season.
Hraby, of course, didn’t stop at the 14 points he needed to get the milestone. He finished with 30 points, four rebounds, four steals and three assists. Conner Klingbeil added 11 points while hitting three 3-point shots and adding five rebounds.
Hraby scored 21 of his points in the first half.
Hraby became the third Raider during his four seasons playing at the varsity level to reach the 1,000-point level. Peyton Kuhn hit it during his freshman year and Logan Baumgartner got there the following season. Both of them have held the title of Medford’s all-time leading scorer with Kuhn having 1,464 points and Baumgartner scoring 1,749. Hraby isn’t going to catch those two, but he certainly should move up from his current standing of ninth on Medford’s all-time scoring list before season’s end.
“I feel like it’s always been a goal of mine, just from when I was young and seeing people get it,” Hraby said. “I remember when Cam Wenzel got it and we went (to Nekoosa) and watched that. Seeing Bummy get it. It’s just a great feeling. It’s pretty cool (to join the school’s 1,000-point list). We’ve have a lot of good players come through this program. It’s nice to be amongst the top of them.”
Medford started a bit sluggish and trailed by four early. Hraby got a threepoint play off his own rebound to put Medford up 13-11 with 6:59 left in the half. He hit a 3-pointer to break the 13-13 tie, then missed one that would have put him at 1,000. Owen Stockwell converted a three-point play at the 5:36 mark and Klingbeil stuck in an offensive rebound. Hraby got another look at a 3 that came up short. But on the next Medford possession, Hraby got a running start from the right wing as he took a pass from Hayden Koester, got to the rim and got the hoop, foul and free throw to hit the milestone.
“I was still hunting my shot, but obviously it was in the back of my head,” Hraby said of trying to just play the game. “Otherwise we just wanted to get a win. That was the big thing to just stay focused on getting good shots and not forcing anything. We ran a play and then I missed the 3, then I missed another 3 and then on the and-one, I got it. It was nice to get it on the dot then.”
The strong stretch of man-to-man defense to close the half included back-toback steals and layups by Hraby that made it 28-13. The Raiders ended it with a bang when Koester pulled down a defensive rebound and pushed the ball ahead on the right side of the floor. He found Hraby along the sideline. He juked past a defender and swished a 3-pointer at the buzzer.
Brayden Balciar scored five quick points early in the second half to push the lead to 37-15 before Pines made a bit of a run. AJ Muench led that charge by sinking three 3-pointers and Cody Vojta, who hit two 3s early in the game, scored twice more inside to cut Medford’s lead to 39-28 before Klingbeil silenced the Eagles’ run with a 3-pointer from the left wing with 12:35 to go. Stockwell put back his own miss and Klingbeil got another 3-point hit to open up a 47-30 lead. Hraby beat the Pines defense to the rim in transition, Koester got a shot in the lane to fall at the seven-minute mark and Klingbeil hit another triple 37 seconds later to make it 5433 and put the game away.
Stockwell got a hard-earned eight points and had three rebounds and two assists in the win. Balciar had three steals to go with his five points. Koester had four points, six rebounds and five assists. Nick Steliga sank an early 3 and Medford’s last point of the night was the first in the career of freshman Blake Thorson.
Muench, Mylo Albrecht and Vojta all hit double figures for Pines with 14, 13 and 12 points respectively.
Northland Pines turned the basketball over 27 times and Medford had a 24-5 advantage in points off turnovers. The Raiders turned the ball over just eight times.
“I think we played pretty good,” Hraby said. “We probably could’ve played a little bit better in certain spots, but I thought we pressured pretty well and played pretty decent defense. We went on a couple runs and hit shots in spurts. Hopefully we’ll get a little more consistent with that.”
One of the unique aspects of Hraby’s accomplishment is that he only scored 22 points as a freshman and, in his sophomore and junior seasons, he wouldn’t have been considered Medford’s numberone scoring option with Baumgartner or even players like Joey Sullivan and Charlie Kleist also getting their fair share of shots.
“Not being the number-one option kinda helped,” said Hraby, a three-sport standout who qualified for state in cross country three times and is planning to play baseball at UW-River Falls next year. “I was open a lot, especially my sophomore year. I just got a lot more open shots, rather than contested shots. But I just scored enough those two years. Then I’ve scored more this year and got there.”
Of course, many of those former teammates were watching Friday.
“They all texted me congrats after,” Hraby said. “A couple of them were together and they called me after. That was pretty cool.”
Raiders 81, Hatchets 24
Medford earned its third straight win Tuesday by blowing out host Tomahawk 81-24 in GNC play.
Boosted by the return of junior Charlie Gierl after a month-long absence, the Raiders were simply too quick and too strong for the outmanned Hatchets, who dropped to 0-5 in the GNC and 1-10 overall.
Medford tore out to a 56-12 halftime lead, forcing 27 of Tomahawk’s 34 turnovers in the first 18 minutes. Fullcourt pressure as well as perimeter pressure in Tomahawk’s halfcourt sets prevented Tomahawk from getting anything going offensively. Medford scored 55 points off turnovers and 28 points in transition while improving to 3-2 in GNC play and 4-7 overall.
Gierl looked strong in his return, getting the rim early and often and scoring a team-high 14 points for the Raiders. He added four rebounds. Hraby scored 13 points and had eight of Medford’s 25 steals, six assists and four rebounds. Steliga had 11 points, three rebounds, three assists and three steals. Owen Stockwell was active in the paint, scoring 10 points and grabbing seven rebounds.
Klingbeil was one point short of giving Medford five double-digit scorers. He had nine points and five steals. Koester scored seven points and had three rebounds and two assists. Logan Gubser had five points and a couple of steals. Balciar had four points, two assists and two rebounds. Nick Krause had four late points, Carson Carbaugh had a first-half basket and Peyton Ried added a late bucket.
Getting easy baskets allowed Medford to shoot 54.1% from the field (33 of 51), including 28 of 47 (58.2%) on two-point shots. The Raiders also made 10 of 15 free throws. Medford outrebounded the Hatchets 34-20 and had just nine turnovers.
Tomahawk got a nice outing from junior Brody Rigney, who scored nine points, including seven in the second half.
A much tougher test arrives Friday when Medford completes the first round of GNC play by hosting the Rhinelander Hodags at 7:15 p.m. Rhinelander gave league-leading Mosinee a battle Tuesday before falling at home 70-58. The Hodags crushed Lakeland 79-54 Friday in what was then a battle of GNC unbeatens. The Hodags come in at 4-1 in the GNC and 7-5 overall.
Medford hosts Merrill Tuesday at 7:15 p.m. before starting round two of GNC at Lakeland Jan. 19 with an eye toward avenging a 57-53 season-opening loss to the T-Birds.
Medford’s Owen Stockwell rises up for a close shot in the lane during the second half of Friday’s win at Northland Pines. JON EICHMAN/VILAS COUNTY NEWS REVIEW
