RIB LAKE BOYS BASKETBALL - Rib Lake’s offense overwhelms Falcons; Redmen rout Hatchets

RIB LAKE BOYS BASKETBALL

Jackson Blomberg led three Redmen in double figures with 21 points, while Andrew Wudi and Seth Borchardt led their free-flowing offense with five assists apiece in Rib Lake’s fourth straight win, a 72-53 triumph Tuesday at Marawood North rival Abbotsford.

After giving up two of the game’s first three baskets, the Redmen took the lead for good at 9-5 on a personal six-point run by Donovan Sutherland and cruised from there, passing, cutting and driving their way through Abbotsford’s defense. Rib Lake built its lead as high as 30 before the Falcons scored the game’s last 11 points to tighten the score somewhat at the end.

Head coach Todd Henderson’s crew maintained its 1.5-game lead over Prentice in the North Division standings by improving to 7-3 in Marawood Conference play. Prentice is 6-5, while Phillips sits 2.5 games back at 5-6. With a 14-4 overall record, the Redmen have now already surpassed their win total from last year with six regular-season games still to play.

Abbotsford fell to 2-8 in Marawood play and 3-16 overall.

Jed Henderson was six of eight from the field while scoring 12 points for the Redmen and Sutherland had a 12-point, 11-rebound double-double as his quickness and length proved to be a tough matchup for the Falcons inside.

Rib Lake’s passing was a highlight of this outing as many of the team’s 17 assists were threaded through tight windows or a handful came from teammates looking ahead for each other in transition.

Two of Sutherland’s early baskets came off pretty feeds from Talon Scheithauer and Wudi. Seth Borchardt whistled a pass by two defenders for a Henderson layup that made it 13-5 and Borchardt sent a bullet to Blomberg on a backdoor cut for a layup that made it 17-7 early.

Rib Lake started to create separation when Borchardt put in an offensive rebound and Scheithauer hit two mid-range shots for a 28-13 lead. Wudi put in a lefthanded scoop shot with two seconds left to cap a 6-0 spurt that made it 34-19 at halftime. Dominic Quednow and Scheithauer opened the second half with 3s to make it 40-19. Wudi sent a pretty baseline bounce pass through traffic for a Henderson hoop and harm that made the score 50-28 after Henderson missed the free throw. Scheithauer’s no-look pass off an offensive rebound gave Blomberg a layup that made it 62-39 and Blomberg capped his big night on Rib Lake’s next possession with a 3-pointer.

Wudi had eight points and six rebounds. Quednow had seven points and seven rebounds. Scheithauer had seven points, five rebounds and two assists. Borchardt added five points and three rebounds.

Irvin Aguilera led the Falcons with 11 points. AJ Brodhagen added nine points.

Rib Lake will look to keep its stranglehold on first place in three upcoming Marawood games. The Redmen are at 2-15 Newman Catholic Friday for a Marawood Conference crossover and head to 3-13 Chequamegon Monday for a make-up date and first meeting of the season with their North Division rivals before hosting Stratford Feb. 9 in their final crossover matchup of the season. All three varsity games tip at 7:15 p.m.

Rib Lake 69, Tomahawk 49

On Friday, Rib Lake jumped ahead 22-0 and held that sizable lead the rest of the way in a 69-49 non-conference win at Tomahawk.

The Redmen were without Scheithauer and Jed Henderson, two key players in their typical rotation, but those absences and the early lead allowed coach Todd Henderson to substitute freely and get some more minutes for players at the end of his bench.

Blomberg paced the Redmen with 20 points, plus he grabbed five rebounds and had five steals. Sutherland scored a career-high 18 points and missed a doubledouble by one rebound. He also had four steals.

Quednow scored 13 points and added seven rebounds, two assists and two steals. Borchardt chipped in with 10 points, three rebounds and two assists.

Rib Lake was consistently able to get inside against the defense of the Hatchets, who fell to 1-14 at the time, and made 26 of 47 two-point shots. The Redmen scored 44 points in the paint, outrebounded the Hatchets 39-32 and forced 25 turnovers, which were turned into 24 points.

Quednow, Blomberg and Sutherland each had six points in the 22-point run to start the game. Tomahawk, who shot a respectable 37% from the field (20 of 54) clawed its way back within 16 a couple of times, the last of which was 33-17. From there, however, Rib Lake finished the half with a 7-0 spurt that included two free throws from Sutherland, a Sutherland score off a Borchardt steal, a Quednow free throw and Sutherland’s tip-in at the buzzer that made it 40-17.

The closest Tomahawk got in the second half was 19 at 48-29, but Rib Lake answered that with a 10-0 run that included a Blomberg score, a rebound basket by Michael Butler, a Blomberg steal and score, Sutherland’s inbound basket and a driving basket by Wudi. That was Wudi’s only score of the game, but he had five rebounds and four assists. Butler had four points and three rebounds and Corey Fuchs got his first field goal of the year to close Rib Lake’s scoring. He also had two rebounds and an assist.

Malachi Scheffler scored all 15 of his points in the second half for Tomahawk.