WIAA DIV. 5 GIRLS BASKETBALL - After 27 years and eight final losses, Rib Lake is finally back at sectionals

WIAA DIV. 5 GIRLS BASKETBALL

A 27-year drought finally ended along the shores of Lake Superior, of all places, Saturday night when Rib Lake earned the school’s first WIAA girls basketball regional championship since 1998 with a 49-27 win over the host South Shore Cardinals.

Several good teams have come through Rib Lake since that 1998 state-qualifying team but the program was 0-8 in Division 4 or 5 regional finals since then.

But on Saturday, the Redmen left no doubt, doing just what they had done throughout their three-game regional week –– jumping ahead early and burying teams with defensive pressure. The Redmen led 29-12 at the half, 43-15 six minutes into the second half and cruised to the finish, when this year’s team of two seniors, seven juniors and two suddenlyimportant freshmen finally grabbed the regional plaque and celebrated in front of a sizable contingent of fans that made the nearly three-hour trip to Port Wing.

“We’ve thought about our group since elementary school,” senior Addison Gumz said. “We said then, we were going to make it far. When we get up there, when we’re juniors and seniors, we’re going to make it far. When we did I was just literally filled with so much pride that I started crying. I’ve cried happy tears before but I was just so proud. We’re so close as a group and we’re all friends. It was just accomplishing a huge thing together. It was amazing.”

“We’re really excited,” said junior Tessa Weik, whose mother, Heather, was on that 1998 state team. “It’s been 27 years. It’s just really exciting because it’s something we’ve been working for for a really long time and it’s finally coming true. And we’re not done yet. Let’s see how far we can go.”

Going further won’t be easy for the sixth-seeded and 16-10 Redmen who will now get the sectional half-bracket’s top seed, 23-4 Owen-Withee tonight, Thursday, in a sectional semifinal matchup at Prentice that tips off at 7 p.m. The teams faced each other not long ago on Feb. 17 and the Blackhawks won in a 52-22 rout.

But there’s no question a change took place with the Redmen just three days later when they knocked off Marawood North champion and longtime nemesis Phillips 53-41 on the Loggers’ home floor to end the regular season.

“Since then I just feel like we’re a different team,” the team’s second-year head coach Austin Edwards said. “I mean we haven’t lost a rebound battle since.”

“After the Phillips game, that was our signature win,” Gumz said. “After that breakthrough, we’ve just been stacking every single game after that.”

South Shore (19-7) drew the halfbracket’s second seed following a secondplace finish in the Northern Lights Conference, but like Flambeau and Winter earlier in the week, the competition the Cardinals played in the regular season didn’t prepare them for Rib Lake’s pressure defense, which held South Shore to two points in the Saturday’s first nine minutes. By then it was 17-2 and the script for the night was already pretty much written.

“I think our defense and press helped us going up north,” junior Avery Niemi said. “Those teams don’t see that much pressure or the 1-2-2 that we run, so we were giving them something different. Then getting such a big lead right away helped us. Our defense is our best offense. That’s what our coach says.”

Niemi contributed to the early offense with two 3-pointers that shot Rib Lake out to an 8-0 lead. Weik hit a long two-pointer to make it 10-0. She scored again, Emma Tlusty took a hard rive to the basket, Kiana Dallmann scored off a baseline move and Tlusty hit a free throw for the quick 15point lead.

Niemi got a steal and Gumz fed her sister Isabelle Gumz for the basket, and then Niemi scored again for a 23-4 lead. Dallmann hit a runner and a 3-pointer to make it 28-8.

“I’ve been thoroughly impressed just with the way they’ve come out with no nerves or anything,” Edwards said. “They’re throwing the first punch and they’re not looking back.”

The players said it all goes back to the second half in Phillips when they turned a 10-point second-half deficit into a 12point win.

“It was one thing to know that we could do it, but it was quite another to actually see it happen in the moment,” said Dallmann, a senior.

“Just to have that win going into playoffs now it’s just a totally different mindset, like ‘hey we can do this,’” Weik said. “Our mindset now is definitely just work hard, hustle and just do our thing.”

“For us to have that signature win yet being the sixth seed, there was no pressure on us going into the playoffs,” Isabelle Gumz said.

If South Shore thought it had any shot at a comeback coming out of the locker room, the Redmen quickly ended that ideas. Tlusty and Weik scored immediately out of the break, Niemi hit her third of four 3-pointers and, off a turnover, Weik’s long feed got Tlusty another score to make it 38-12. Niemi’s final 3-pointer got the lead to 28 before the Redmen coasted while trying to get the clock to all zeros.

“It was kind of surreal,” said junior Madilyn Blomberg. “I haven’t spent many minutes on the court (due to injury) but just being out there at the end, that was a crazy feeling.”

“I actually had the ball in my hand because we were running down the clock and I was just like, ‘we did it, oh my gosh,’” Dallmann said.

Niemi led Rib Lake with 14 points, while Dallmann hit double figures with 10. Isabelle Gumz scored eight, Tlusty scored seven and Addison Gumz had four points. Sophia Truchon and Idella Wilcox led South Shore with nine points apiece.

To beat Owen-Withee tonight is likely going to take the team’s best effort of the season. The Redmen believe they can rely on their defense, which has been their strength all season. They will throw some new wrinkles at the Blackhawks. They also know they need to take better care of the basketball, shoot it better than they did the first time and rebound much better than they did the first time.

Tonight’s winner will advance to Saturday’s sectional championship and a shot at state against either sixth-seeded Eau Claire Immanuel Lutheran (15-11) or top-seeded Solon Springs (21-3), the champions on the Northern Lights Conference. That game is currently scheduled to be played at 1 p.m. in Superior. After last Saturday’s win, maybe another long trip to the great northwest won’t be such a bad thing for the Redmen.

“We just have to play like we have the last few games,” Weik said. “We’ve had the hustle, we’ve had the drive. We just have to go out and do it and don’t look back.”

“We have to focus on getting that first punch, like we have the last few games,” Niemi said.

“We’re more prepared this time especially after having played Phillips,” Dallmann said. “Knowing that we lost in the first round by 12 and then we came back and beat them by double digits, we know we can do it. We just need to push it as hard as we can.”

“I really do think it’ll be a good game and that’s all you can ask for,” Edwards said. “Nobody is going to take away our regional plaque now. It’s all icing on the cake from here.”

Rib Lake 62, Winter 24

Much like the Redmen did to another East Lakeland team, Flambeau, in their regional opener three days earlier, Rib Lake set the tone immediately with defensive intensity, hit a few shots as well and put Friday’s regional semifinal game in the win column early in a 62-24 rout at third-seeded Winter.

Right off the bat, Niemi scored off a Weik assist and Tahlia Scheithauer’s steal led to a Tlusty hoop making it 4-0 in the blink of an eye. Ava Ewert hit a 3-pointer for Winter that was answered by a triple from Addison Gumz that started a 14-0 run as the Redmen quickly slammed the door while building a 42-16 halftime lead.

The Redmen got balanced scoring in the win. Addison Gumz led with 14 points and Tlusty scored 10 of her 12 in the first half. Weik, Madelyn Anderson and Niemi scored seven points each, Isabelle Gumz chipped in with five and, playing for the first time since injuring her ankle at Mellen on Jan. 9, Blomberg made two late free throws.

Tlusty had six of Rib Lake’s 21 steals, Megan Komarek had eight rebounds, all in the second half, Weik had seven boards and three assists. Anderson had six rebounds as did Tlusty.

Scheithauer and Addison Gumz had four assists apiece and Gumz also had four steals.

The play of the team’s freshmen, Komarek and especially Anderson down the stretch, has given the Redmen a boost with their length and just adding depth to the team’s bench.

“(Anderson) is 6-2 with a 6-7 wingspan. You just don’t see that,” Edwards said. “She has extremely good touch around the rim.”

“They’re really stepping up,” Weik said of the freshmen. “We’re really proud of them.”

Rib Lake’s trapping defense was suffocating early, causing several turnovers and when Winter tried to throw over the top of it, the Redmen were there to intercept those passes as well. After Gumz’s 3 started the early 14-0 run, her steal led to a Tlusty hoop, Tlusty got her own steal and score and Weik scored off a Niemi assist. Tlusty took a defensive rebound uncontested the other way and kicked a pass out to Anderson, who sank her first varsity 3-pointer of the year for an 18-3 lead.

The Warriors then got some 3s to fall to stay somewhat close at 24-12, but Tlusty scored in the post, Niemi drained a 3 and then Dallmann made her mark on the first half, getting a defensive rebound and outletting to Isabelle Gumz for an easy basket and then scoring two of her baskets inside for a 35-12. Addison Gumz put an exclamation point on the half by knocking down a 3-pointer from the right side with 10 seconds left and stealing a pass in the backcourt and turning that into a layup with two ticks left.

Rib Lake’s lead got as high as 38 on three occasions in the second half, where the Redmen outscored Winter 20-8.

Ava Ewert, led the sophomoredominated Warriors with 11 points, including three 3-pointers. Gracie Granica added seven points.

Members of Rib Lake’s 2024-25 WIAA Division 5 regional championship team include (front l. to r.) Ava Dallmann, Addison Gumz, Kiana Dallmann, Tahlia Scheithauer, Isabelle Gumz, Madelyn Dallmann, (back) coach Jon Dallmann, Emma Tlusty, Madilyn Blomberg, Madelyn Anderson, Tessa Weik, Avery Niemi and head coach Austin Edwards. Megan Komarek and manager Peyton Hartl are not pictured. The Redmen went 3-0 last week in regional play, including Saturday’s 49-27 win at second-seeded South Shore in the regional final. RIB LAKE SCHOOL DISTRICT FACEBOOK

Rib Lake Addison Gumz aims and fires from the free throw line during the first half of Friday’s WIAA Division 5 regional semifinal win at Winter. PHOTO BY ROSS PATTERMANN