MEDFORD GIRLS BASKETBALL - This time, Raiders hold off big comeback by Rhinelander

MEDFORD GIRLS BASKETBALL

The Medford Raiders took advantage of short-handed Rhinelander, building a 28point lead early in the second half of Friday’s Great Northern Conference girls basketball matchup at Raider Hall.

But things are never that easy against the Hodags, no matter the situation, and, after blowing a 21-point lead at Rhinelander in the teams’ first meeting of the season Dec. 3, Medford was happy to escape with a 64-56 win that put the Raiders over .500 in GNC play for the first time this season at 4-3. The team’s fifth straight win overall puts them at 7-8.

“It got a little too close,” sophomore Taylor Klingbeil said. “I don’t know what happened. But we stuck it out.”

“It feels good,” junior Aliyah Pilgrim said. “It got a little nervous there at the end.”

For its second straight game, Rhinelander was unfortunately without its All-GNC sophomore standout Aubryn Clark, who scored a school-record 43 points in the Hodags’ 63-58 overtime win over Medford last month. Mosinee took advantage by hammering the Hodags 6524 on Jan. 14 and Medford was well on its way to doing the same through Friday’s first 23 minutes.

Klingbeil capped a huge week with 28 points, her fourth straight game with at least 25 points. The Raiders overall shot the ball fairly well, shooting 42.9% form the field (21 of 49), including 11 points from Kayla Baumgartner, a season-high tying 10 from Toryn Rau and nine from Pilgrim, tying her second-best output of the season.

“Finally,” Pilgrim said of the team’s recent offensive uptick. “We’ve been doing a lot of shooting in practice and I feel like we’re just getting more comfortable with each other as a team. Everything is flowing.”

Klingbeil scored Medford’s first eight points, including a 3-point shot and a three-point play. A Baumgartner 3pointer, plus a Pilgrim basket and three points from Rau got Medford out to an 186 lead midway through the first half.

Rau’s three-point play, Pilgrim’s follow-up off a Klingbeil miss, Pilgrim’s score off a Laney Hraby assist, a 3-pointer from Klingbeil and Baumgartner’s threepoint play had Medford rolling. Klingbeil’s basket and a 3-pointer from Rylee Hraby had Medford up 36-12 before the Raiders settled for a 40-18 halftime lead.

“We broke their press well and we got easy points,” Klingbeil said of the first half.

Klingbeil had six of Medford’s first nine points of the second half as the lead got to 49-21 and 51-23.

But after a Baumgartner basket, she was called for an intentional foul and, with 13:23 left, the intensity switch flipped on for the Hodags.

Sophomore Vivian Lamers led their charge back into the game with a 3pointer, two bonus free throws with 8:49 left and a three-point play at the 7:57 mark that made it 56-37. Foul trouble and misses from both the free throw line and the field, left the door open. Baumgartner fouled out with 5:03 left and when Hodag Dawsyn Barkus sank two free throws with 3:38 still left, the Raiders’ lead was down to 10 at 57-47. A Barkus 3-pointer shrunk Medford’s lead to single digits at 59-50 with 2:19 left. A turnover gave Rhinelander the chance to get even closer, but an offensive foul on Lamers with 1:21 and their senior post Kelsey Winter fouling out with 1:08 left eased the tension. Pilgrim’s free throws with 1:08 left put Medford back up by 10 and the lead eventually went back to 12 before Lamers scored twice in the last 15 seconds.

Lamers led Rhinelander (4-3, 9-6) with 23 points and five assists. Winter had a 10point, 10-rebound double-double.

Rylee Hraby had three points and three assists for the Raiders, Laney Hraby had two points and five rebounds and Jolie Steliga had a key free throw in the second half, a rebound and an assist.

Klingbeil, who is now averaging 19.1 points per game, came up just shy of her first 30-point game. Like the rest of the team, she’s gained confidence and momentum once Medford’s schedule hit a soft stretch in January.

“I’m feeling good,” she said. “The teams lately weren’t that hard to play against, but it feels good to be consistent.”

The next two outings, however, will get the Raiders back into some tough competition as they will face the two teams ahead of them in the Great Northern Conference standings. They go to Lakeland, owner of a 36-game GNC winning streak, Friday and then host Mosinee on Jan. 31. Lakeland won 74-45 and Mosinee won 53-43 in the season’s first meetings.

Tip times for both upcoming games are 7:15 p.m.

Medford’s Jolie Steliga and Rhinelander’s Ella Miljevich collide as they go after a loose ball near midcourt during the first half of Friday’s GNC game at Raider Hall won by the home team 64-56. MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS