WIAA DIV. 5 BOYS BASKETBALL - Redmen pull away from Thorp in regional, fall in North finale

WIAA DIV. 5 BOYS BASKETBALL

The 13th-seeded Thorp Cardinals put up a solid fight, but the fourth-seeded Rib Lake Redmen were too much, as expected, and opened WIAA Division 5 boys basketball regional play Tuesday with a 50-34 home win.

Bringing some size and physicality, the now 3-21 Cardinals made it difficult for Rib Lake to score at times, but the Redmen were even better at the defensive end, holding Thorp to 10 first-half points. Over the course of 36 minutes, Rib Lake just had more offensive weapons to turn to and pulled away.

“I think we’ve come to realize that when it comes to the post-season and being successful we have to focus on what we can control,” Rib Lake head coach Todd Henderson said after his team improved to 18-7. “Attitude and effort and good hustle on defense, work hard, try to not to turn the ball over. If we keep our turnovers down and we rebound hard and rebound well, we’ll be fine. Our shots will fall some nights and some nights they won’t. But if we do those other things well, they’ll keep you in any game.”

Tuesday’s win gives Rib Lake at least one more home game. The Redmen will host fifth-seeded Flambeau (18-6) in the regional semifinal round Friday at 7 p.m. The Falcons trounced 12th-seeded Winter 90-34 Tuesday. Friday’s winner will advance to Saturday’s regional final and play either ninth-seeded Lake Holcombe (10-14) or the one-seed Mellen (21-3) with the higher seed hosting at 7 p.m.

The regional champion will play in a sectional semifinal at Prentice on March 13.

Thorp had a four-point lead very early Tuesday and still led 10-8 when Rib Lake turned things around with a 14-0 run that covered the last 9:15 of the first half.

It started with Jed Henderson putting back his own miss to tie the game at 10-10. After a Slade Scheithauer free throw, Talon Scheithauer swished a 3-pointer and Blake Henderson scored off a Slade Scheithauer assist. Lucas Cook fought through contact to score inside and Slade Scheithauer hit a free-throw line jumper to get the lead to double digits. Seth Borchardt’s driving shot from the left side made it 22-10 with 3:35 left in the half and that’s where the score stayed when the teams went to the break.

Thorp snapped out of its drought right away in the second half with a short shot from 6-3 freshman Cooper Rosemeyer. Rosemeyer added another score and Daniel Mathison hit a 3-pointer to get the Cardinals within 25-17. Another Rosemeyer basket made it 27-19, but then the Redmen took over, going on a 14-2 run to grab a 41-21 lead with seven minutes to go.

Jed Henderson hit a short shot over Rosemeyer and a reverse layup. Blake Henderson put in a baseline reverse layup of his own and Talon Scheithauer had eight points in the run, including a 3-ball at the end to signal the end of the line for Thorp.

Talon Scheithauer led the Redmen with 16 points. He hit three of four 3-point shots and grabbed six rebounds. Jed Henderson scored 14 points and Blake Henderson chipped in with six, plus he had six rebounds and three assists. Borchardt scored four points and dished out five assists. Lucas Cook and Slade Scheithauer scored three each. Cook had six rebounds. Ethan Cook hit an early baseline jumper and pulled down six boards. Jackson Schutt sank two secondhalf free throws.

Rib Lake outrebounded the Cardinals 38-23.

Rosemeyer’s 10 points led Thorp, who also got eight points from Dylan Mattson an seven from Mathison.

“They play in a tough conference,” Henderson said of the Cardinals, who play in the Western Cloverbelt. “There are some football players there who play basketball. They have some athletes. I was hoping we would score a little more. Defensively I thought we could kind of keep them down. We were a little off offensively.”

Phillips 67, Rib Lake 58

In Thursday’s final game of the regular season, the host Phillips Loggers rallied from a nine-point second-half deficit and surged past the Redmen for a 67-58 win to earn a split in the season series between the top two teams in the Marawood North.

Rib Lake finished 12-4 in Marawood play, while Phillips (16-8 overall) ended up three games behind at 9-7, one game ahead of Prentice, who was knocked off by Athens Thursday in its last game.

For a little more than a half, it was business as usual offensively for Rib Lake. The Redmen carved up Phillips behind 55.6% shooting from the field in the first half (15 of 27) to take a 36-29 halftime lead. A 17-7 spurt turned a 15-12 deficit into a 29-22 lead and included 10 points from Borchardt, who had an outstanding game with 23 points on nine-of-16 shooting as well as three assists. Ethan Cook hit a long two-point shot and Jed Henderson added a late 3-pointer to keep the lead at seven.

Two baskets by Borchardt and one by Jed Henderson created a 46-37 lead with 12:05 left, but the Redmen went cold from the field after that. They made just 10 of 29 field goals in the half.

Phillips only made nine second-half field goals, but four of them were 3pointers. One each from Brayden Revak and Shay Denzine pushed the Loggers into a 52-49 with 7:05 left. Rib Lake tied the game at 54-54 on a Talon Scheithauer drive and then a Jed Henderson score with 4:19 left. The Redmen tried a 1-3-1 zone and JJ Heikkinen burned it with a goahead 3-pointer with 3:19 left. Revak added another bomb with 2:03 left to make it a 60-56 game.

From there, the Loggers put the game away at the free throw line. They were 19 of 24 from the stripe overall and a deadly 16 of 18 in the second half. Their free throws and 10-of-19 3-point shooting were big advantages over Rib Lake’s three-of-17 shooting from long range, and the Redmen only got to the free throw line 12 times, making five.

Jed Henderson scored 17 points for the Redmen and grabbed eight rebounds. Ethan Cook scored eight points and had four rebounds. Blake Henderson had six points, six assists and five rebounds. Talon Scheithauer added four points.

Revak hit six 3s and led Phillips with 24 points. Heikkinen had 18 pionts and four assists, while Lane Abraham added 11 points and nine rebounds.

Rib Lake’s Lucas Cook falls to the floor after being tripped and fouled by Thorp’s Jack Whitmire during the second half of Tuesday’s 50-34 WIAA Division 5 regional win. MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS