MEDFORD BOYS BASKETBALL - Surprising start continues with win over DCE

MEDFORD BOYS BASKETBALL

Expectations may not have been as high as in previous years when the boys basketball season started, but the Medford Raiders are quickly creating some believers.

After giving up the opening basket Tuesday, the Raiders gained the lead and never let it go, using a career-high 32 points from senior Charlie Gierl to knock off D.C. Everest 74-64 at Raider Hall. The nonconference win put the Raiders at 3-0 in the early going heading into an intriguing earlyseason Great Northern Conference matchup Friday at Raider Hall with 4-0 Mosinee.

The win was constructed with what has emerged as the Raiders’ early-season winning formula –– aggressive defense, patient halfcourt offense and shot-making when needed.

“We just don’t settle for bad shots,” junior Nick Krause said after scoring 17 points in the win. “Coach (Ryan) Brown says gold medal or silver medal shots are what we want. We don’t settle for bad ones.”

“It was a team win,” Gierl said after his outstanding outing. “We came into this game knowing that D.C. Everest is a physical team, a tall team. We had to get on the boards and fight physically. We did that tonight. Our defense really stepped up and that created open shots in transition, fouls on them. It was a great team effort.”

D.C. Everest was playing without the injured Cohen Priebe, a three-team All-Wisconsin Valley Conference second-team selection. Still, the Evergreens presented some matchups problems, particularly with the quickness of junior slasher Xavier Edwards, the shooting of juniors Cade Felch and Sam Dassow and the size of second-team All-WVC senior Casey Stuedemann.

Medford didn’t back down defensively. While Edwards scored 23 points and Stuedemann scored 14, the Raiders made them work for their points and limited the Evergreens to just four made 3s.

“This group wants to be aggressive, which is huge,” Brown said. “Even some guys that maybe you wouldn’t thought that of a couple years ago. They’re really doing a good job of trying to move their feet, use their lower body and get into guys when they drive and help. We’ve been setting a good tone. Hopefully we can continue that.”

Gierl came out firing, scoring Medford’s first eight points, including a 3pointer and a three-point play inside. He added another 3 for a 16-6 lead. Peyton Ried and Gierl followed that up with two more 3s for a stunning 22-6 lead. Ried hit another bomb moments later for a 25-12 edge before the Evergreens started to chip away, cutting Medford’s lead to 33-24 at the half.

Medford made 13 3-point shots in the win, including Gierl’s four in the first half alone, Krause’s four and two each by Ried and Jason Woller. Woller hit his two in the second half and both came at key times. His first quieted a little Everest push that cut Medford’s lead to 48-40. With 3:34 to go, he drilled a left-corner 3-ball after the Evergreens had pulled within 56-51. D.C. Everest got no closer than six in the free throw parade that ensued the rest of the way.

“It’s great,” Gierl said. “Jay’s a great player. He can knock down shots when it counts. It’s great to see him hitting shots and hitting his groove.”

“I do think we feel confident,” Brown said. “We have multiple guys this year that can make shots if they’re left open. I thought the best part of this game was the tone we set at the start both on defense and on offense. We moved that ball sidetop-side three or four times on every possession.”

Brown said the execution came 24 hours after the team actually had its worst practice of the young season.

“It got so hard to watch that me and coach (Garett) Shipman just kicked them out of the gym and said ‘we’re done. We’re not getting better right now,” Brown said. “I thought they responded so well. Everything we were saying that we weren’t doing yesterday, they were doing it today. Jumping to the basketball, being early on help, being aggressive, boxing guys out. They had a lot of size on us where they could have really dominated the boards, but we boxed guys out, we went for the ball, all five guys. We moved the ball until we broke them down. Luckily we made enough shots that forced them to have to start to extend and then late in the game we were able to hit some slips and some drives.”

Ried scored 10 points for Medford, Hayden Koester scored seven, Woller finished with six and Devin Dassow’s only basket came inside with 4:38 left after Everest had closed within 54-49. The freshman held his own while drawing the matchup defensively with Edwards most of the night.

Vander Truax added 14 points for the Evergreens. Felch was held to eight and Sam Dassow, a sharp shooter off the bench, hit one 3-pointer.

“We knew who their attackers were, who their shooters were,” Krause said. (Edwards) was one of their main attackers. In the first half, he didn’t go right once, so we just forced him right. Their shooters were (Dassow) and (Felch). I think the first half we only gave up two 3s to them.”

Mosinee comes into town Friday rolling so far. The Indians beat Wisconsin Rapids 63-47 Tuesday and one of its early wins was an 89-81 win over a pre-season ranked Milwaukee Golda Meir squad. Wausau West visits for another tough non-conference game on Tuesday before Medford heads to Merrill on Dec. 19.

“Mosinee has a very good team,” Brown said. “They have two super athletic underclassmen with Treve Stoffel as a junior and Brayden Reinke, who’s a sophomore. They have good size at most positions. We just have to have two good days of practice. Our goal this year is to just keep getting better. The senior motto this year is ‘give it your best and live with it.’ That’s what we have to do. Every day is a chance to get better.”

Medford 73, Lakeland 57

On Friday, the Raiders capped a 2-0 first week by forcing 24 turnovers, converting them into 29 points and hitting 11 3-point shots in a 73-57 win at Lakeland.

Medford followed up its Dec. 3 win over Chippewa Falls by jumping out to an 8-0 lead right off the bat and led wire-to-wire in the Great Northern Conference opener. Krause sank four of those 3s and scored 22 points to lead all scorers. Medford also got 15 points from Gierl, 12 from Devin Dassow and 11 points and 11 rebounds from Koester to more than offset the 20 points Lakeland got from Evan Zoch.

“We did a lot of really good things,” Brown said. “The defensive tone we set was big. We forced 24 turnovers and had 17. I thought our defense was really good tonight, in both games this week actually. We were physical, aggressive, we’re slowly starting to be early.”

Eighteen of Lakeland’s turnovers came in the first half, where Medford had total command.

Krause and Dassow sank 3s and Koester got a steal and score for the game’s first eight points. Koester’s offensive rebound led to a Gierl 3 that made it 12-4 and Brayden Carlsen hit a 3 that made it 15-6. Koester got an offensive putback and then a three-point play moments later that opened up a 26-11 advantage. Late in the half, Krause knocked down a straight-on 3, then picked the pocket of Lakeland’s Lincoln Friedley, deflecting the ball to Dassow, who got the ball right back to Krause for a layup and the biggest lead of the half at 35-19. Medford settled for a 3724 halftime lead.

Lakeland started the second half with a run that got it within 43-36 with 13:30 left following a Benny Gahler 3. Woller came though with a big corner 3-ball 35 seconds later. That was answered by another Gahler 3 but then a Gierl score, a triple from Krause and a Gierl steal score suddenly shot the lead to 53-40. After a Lakeland timeout, Dassow hit a 3, Peyton Ried scored off an inbound play and Gierl scored off a Dassow assist for a 60-40 lead with nine minutes to go.

As they have done in the past in their gym against Medford, the T-Birds made a late run, driven by their offensive rebounding, and got their deficit down to 64-56 with 2:50 left. But the Raiders held them off from there by making nine of 13 free throws.

“I’m very happy,” Brown said. “I’m very happy with our aggressiveness. I’m very happy with how they’re stepping up to the physicality and the demand of varsity basketball. We have to lot to get better at though. We got killed on the offensive boards. That’s a big thing we need to key on before next week is being able to rebound the basketball better and then just be solid and strong with the lead.”

Lakeland, who fell to 1-3 at the time, outrebounded Medford 43-31 with 20 of those boards coming on the offensive end. Medford shot 43.4% from the field (23 of 53) compared to 33.9% (20 of 59) for the T-Birds. Medford was 11 of 33 from long range, while Lakeland was just four of 21.

“We kinda talk a lot about the battle and the war,” Brown said. “We won the battle a lot, like forced tough shots, but we didn’t win the war (with rebounds). That’s when you have to finish that. But luckily, we did enough tonight. We shot the ball pretty good. We finished decent, made some free throws and then defended well enough overall where we were able to come away with a win.”

Ried scored seven points for Medford, while Carlsen and Woller’s 3s were their first varsity points. Gierl had seven rebounds, Koester blocked three shots and had three assists. Dassow had six assists and Ried had four.

“Nick Krause played great,” Brown said. “He got in a little bit of foul trouble, but he played great. Brayden Carlsen came in and made a big 3. Woller came in and made a big 3 and had a couple of rebounds and forced a couple turnovers for us. Obviously Charlie and Hayden have to be the constants for us. Charlie had 15 and Hayden had 11. Hayden had a couple of nice post moves in the second half just like he did last game.”

Medford's Peyton Ried quickly pushes the basketball into the frontcourt while trying to avoid a trap from Lakeland's Lincoln Friedley (5) and Evan Zoch. Ried scored seven points in the 73-57 win. MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS

The Medford Basketball Booster Club’s seventh grade girls team won its tournament in Antigo Saturday, beating the host Red Robins, Abbotsford and Wausau East. Team members include (front l. to r.) Riley Higgins, Lexi Bunkelman, Lydia Schaefer, Madelyn Johnas, (back) coach Ashley Dahl, Madeline Viergutz, Isabel Simonsen, Macie Juedes, Harper McCune, Cayleigh Olson, Sofia Dahl and coach Krissy Dix. SUBMITTED PHOTO