MEDFORD GIRLS BASKETBALL - Growth process continues in quality win over Crandon

MEDFORD GIRLS BASKETBALL

Medford’s girls basketball team let an 11-point first-half lead slip away, but they made up for it in the second half Tuesday by impressively closing the Crandon Cardinals with a 20-5 game-ending run that clinched a quality 60-42 non-conference win at Raider Hall.

The Cardinals came into the game at 13-3 and have had one of the area’s better small-school programs for a handful of years. Medford turned defense into offense for some easy baskets and got 3-pointers from Taylor Klingbeil, Toryn Rau and Rylee Hraby in a first-half spree that put the Raiders up 24-13.

But that was almost all erased by a 10-1 Crandon run to close the half, including a four-point play from Malia Stamper, that cut the lead to 25-23.

“I had a good talk with them at halftime,” Medford head coach Chad Fronk said. “We just made mental mistakes in the first half. It wasn’t x’s and o’s stuff. They just were doing things they weren’t supposed to be doing. We weren’t all on the same page with what our offensive sets were. But we got it together. The second half was a lot better.”

Crandon did eventually tie the game at 31-31 with 12:26 left, but Medford, who lost at Crandon last year 45-23, refused to give in.

The Cardinals nearly took the lead, but a 3-point shot by Madelynn Erdmann that seemed halfway down spun out and Lily Palubicki missed the putback. The Raiders got possession and scored on Breanna Kraemer’s stickback of a missed 3 by Bailey Eloranta with 9:53 left. Laney Hraby hit a clutch 3-pointer with 8:10 left for a five-point lead that dwindled to one on two Palubicki free throws with 7:19 to go.

Crandon got the ball back with another chance to take the lead, but Kraemer denied the Cardinals swatting away a shot on the block by Alexis Schallock and then, as a trailer in transition, she got the ball down low and scored to put the Raiders up 38-35.

Kayla Baumgartner, who scored a game-high 20 points, led Medford’s knockout punch over the last 5:27. Her 3-pointer with 4:30 left opened up a 45-37 lead. After Palubicki converted a three-point play, Baumgartner sank three of four bonus free throws, then her steal led to a threepoint play by Rylee Hraby that made it 5140 with 3:15 left. Baumgartner scored off a Rau assist and hit four more free throws as Medford stretched the lead well into double digits.

“Part of that was that Crandon was getting a little tired out,” Fronk said of Medford’s ability to close out its opponent. “Their best players played the majority of the game. But the other part was we executed better in the second half.”

Klingbeil added 13 points for Medford, Rylee Hraby scored 10 and Kraemer gave Medford some quality minutes while scoring six points.

Defensively, Medford went with its 1-31 zone for the majority of the game and its length and size with Baumgartner, Klingbeil and Kraemer seemed to fluster the Cardinals.

Laney Hraby chipped in with five points, and Pilgrim and Rau scored three each.

Palubicki led the Cardinals with 15 points, while Erdmann added 11.

Now 8-11 overall with five Great Northern Conference games left in the regular season, Medford got its fifth win this season over a team it lost to last season.

The first of the remaining GNC games is Friday when Medford visits Mosinee for a tough 7:15 p.m. matchup with the Indians. The Raiders are then off until Feb. 5 when they head to Rhinelander for a make-up date of a Jan. 12 postponement.

Lakeland 74, Medford 40

There was a glimmer of hope during an 8-0 run that gave Medford an 8-5 lead in the opening moments of Friday’s Great Northern Conference home game with GNC-leading Lakeland.

Led by their superstar Kristina Ouimette, the Thunderbirds made sure that hope was just a glimmer.

Lakeland answered Medford’s positive stretch with an 18-0 run that quickly turned the tables and sent the T-Birds on their way to a 74-40 win that kept them firmly in control of the GNC title chase at 7-0 and 14-2 overall. Ouimette, the 6-1 junior who will join her sister Julianna at NCAA D-I Lehigh University after next season, poured in 32 points on 11-of-25 shooting, was six of 13 from 3-point range and added five rebounds and four assists.

She wasn’t alone as Ava Evenhouse had 20 points, five rebounds and four steals and Saylor Timmerman, a 6-1 junior post who is a University of Arkansas softball commit, had six points and 10 rebounds.

Down 5-0 right off the bat, Medford got a basket from Rau and a jumper from Pilgrim to cut the lead to one. The Raiders got another defensive stop and then came up with their offensive possession of the game, moving the ball from side to side several times, getting an offensive rebound and finally paying it off on Rau’s tough inside move. Rylee Hraby got a steal and fed Baumgartner for a layup to make it 8-5.

But Ouimette scored inside and then sank a 3, Evenhouse got two baskets and Ouimette buried one from outside to highlight the run that turned the game around. From there, Lakeland went on to lead 4018 at the half and led by as many as 38 late in the second half.

Medford shot 28.3% from the field, but for the Raiders it was mainly the 32 turnovers that were the key to the defeat. Lakeland turned those into 34 of its points. The Raiders more than held their own on the boards against the older and more physical T-Birds, leading that category 4241.

Baumgartner led Medford with a 12-point, 10-rebound double-double. She also had three steals and three blocked shots. Klingbeil had seven points and four rebounds. Rau finished with six points.

Pilgrim had five points, seven rebounds, two assists and two steals. Kraemer had four points and four rebounds. Rylee Hraby had three points, four rebounds and four assists. Madison Clarkson hit a second-half 3-pointer.