MEDFORD BOYS BASKETBALL - Slow start costly for Medford in GNC title battle with Hodags

MEDFORD BOYS BASKETBALL

Winning Thursday’s Great Northern Conference championship game at Raider Hall was going to require 36 minutes of strong basketball by the home team while facing a Rhinelander squad that was riding a six-game winning streak and playing its best ball of the season coming into it.

While the second half was good, the Medford Raiders dug themselves too big of a hole while struggling in the first half and the Hodags went home with the trophy following their 51-43 win.

As expected, Rhinelander’s defense was noticeably tighter after getting carved up by Medford in the Raiders’ 71-63 win back on Jan. 17. A quiet stretch offensively during Rhinelander’s 16-7 run that covered the last eight minutes of the first half ultimately was the difference. Rhinelander (18-5, 10-2 GNC) led 28-17 at halftime and by 13 on four occasions early in the second half. Medford got it down to five with 6:25 left, but then went cold again, adding at least two missed pointblank shots to an already high total of close-to-the-basket misses and the comeback died.

“In the first half they were better, they were more physical,” Medford head coach Ryan Brown said. “I thought what we did so good up there is we took advantage of our slips in the first half. Just for momentum’s sake and everything else, we got some easy baskets there, and we didn’t do that (Thursday) in the first half. We didn’t do a good enough job. We didn’t look for it, we didn’t set up our screens well enough and so we put ourselves in a hole.”

Senior Truman Lamers and sophomore Abe Gretzinger did nearly all of the firsthalf damage for the Hodags. Lamers scored 14 of his game-high 18 points in the first half and threw down two rim-rattling dunks in the contests. Gretzinger was at the right place at the right time throughout the half, scoring 10 of his 15.

“In the first half we struggled,” Brown said. “When we did get the stops, they got a number of offensive rebounds. I think it was 6-0 in the first half for them and I think they capitalized on all or most of them. So they scored a lot of secondchance points.”

Medford’s Charlie Gierl got the game’s first score and Hayden Koester hit a 3pointer after Will Daniels got the ball right back after a turnover for a 5-2 lead. A 9-0 run by the Hodags gave them the lead for good, though Medford got a 3-point hit from Nick Krause and a Krause score off a perfect cut and perfect bounce pass from Devin Dassow to pull within 12-10. Krause’s second 3-pointer answered scores by Lamers and Gretzinger to make it 16-13 and Krause assisted on a Dassow hoop to make it 18-15, but Gretzinger scored, a Devon Feck steal gave Lamers his first dunk and a three-point play by Lamers closed out the half for the Hodags.

Down 37-24, Medford’s second-half surge started with a 3-pointer from Krause from the left side with 12:50 left. Gierl’s second 3 of the half answered a Gretzinger score and got the deficit into single digits at 39-30. Koester scored off a steal and, after a Gretzinger free throw, Koester drove to the rim and scored, making it a two-possession game at 40-34 with 9:55 to play.

“In the second half, we came out and we did what you would expect,” Brown said. “We slipped hard, we screened hard and we started to hit those and we had our opportunities. We scored the ball much more efficiently. We got many more of the shots we want to get. Unfortunately, we just missed too many shots inside the paint.”

Gierl’s score got it to 41-36 and the Raiders had a chance to draw even closer a minute later, but they didn’t get a call when Daniels’ arms were taken out on a layup attempt. Hodag senior Seth Nofftz ended a scoring drought for both teams with drive from the left side with 3:45 left. Lamers scored with 1:23 left and Feck put it away, making it 47-36 with 58.7 seconds left.

The second half they got a couple (of rebounds), but I thought we battled a lot harder,” Brown said. “It was a physical game inside so we kind of started to attack the boards from the standpoint of finding a body and trying to hit him. I thought we did much better in the second half to get those stops and create some turnovers. We won the turnover battle.

“We just have to finish. We know we did a lot of things that we need to do to come back and win in the second half, but you have to be able to make those finishes.”

After missing a game, Gierl had a tough time finding his shooting touch but still led Medford in scoring with 12 points. Koester and Krause scored 11 apiece. Koester had five assists. Dassow scored four pints and had three assists and four steals. Daniels had a first-half hoop and grabbed six rebounds. Will Wojcik’s 3-pointer at the buzzer got the final margin back into single digits.

Rhinelander finished with a 41-18 rebounding edge, including 10 offensive boards that led to seven key secondchance points. Medford shot 33.3% from the field (18 of 54) compared to 45.2% (19 of 42) for Rhinelander. Also key in a game where the officials let the teams play for about three-quarters of the game, Rhinelander made 11 of 16 free throws. Medford got one free throw and missed it.

With the loss, Medford finished the regular season 13-10 overall and 9-3 in the GNC, good for a second-place tie with Mosinee. When the season started in November, those are numbers the Raiders certainly would’ve taken considering the varsity inexperience they brought into the season.

“The guys played hard,” Brown said. I can’t discredit how hard they played or their heart and how they stuck with it and didn’t fold. Unfortunately they got the better of us. It’d be fun to play round three.

“We didn’t expect to be here and I’m proud of the boys for that. It obviously would have been sweet (to win the title) because it was so unexpected.”

Medford will have to buck the odds again to extend its season past Friday. In a 7 p.m. WIAA Division 2 regional semifinal, Medford will visit fourth-seeded Menomonie (13-11), a team that buried the Raiders 94-52 on Feb. 18 and has played its best basketball since the calendar turned to February. Even though the Mustangs lost two games last week, they gave Onalaska, the one-seed on the other side of the Division 2 sectional bracket, and Big Rivers Conference undefeated champion Eau Claire Memorial all they could handle in 68-63 and 68-59 losses.

“We’re going to do better than we did the first time,” Brown vowed. “We are. We’re going to try some different things. We emphasize the things they want to do but I think we’re going to make some adjustments. We’re going to give it our best and live with it. That’s been our motto all year.”

Friday’s winner will advance to the regional final Saturday against either Antigo/Merrill or top-seeded Wausau East (16-7). The higher seed will host at 7 p.m. The regional champion will move on to a March 13 sectional semifinal, currently scheduled to be played in Ashland.