ALL-MARAWOOD NORTH BOYS BASKETBALL - Big season results in plenty of All-North accolades
ALL-MARAWOOD NORTH BOYS BASKETBALL
A year ago, Jed Henderson wasn’t listed anywhere on the All-Marawood North awards list. Today, Rib Lake’s 6-5 junior was viewed as the most impactful boys basketball player in the conference, earning the 2024-25 Marawood North Player of the Year award.
Henderson’s honor tops a heavy list of awards for the Redmen, who claimed their second straight Marawood North championship. Rib Lake completed a remarkable 21-8 season Saturday one win shy of a trip to the WIAA Division 5 state tournament when it fell 53-45 to Turtle Lake in a sectional final played in Altoona.
The Redmen went 12-4 in Marawood Conference play to finish three games ahead of Phillips and four games ahead of Prentice in North standings. Some pundits predicted before the season those two teams would finish ahead of Rib Lake after the Redmen lost four key seniors from last year’s team.
But under the leadership of now twotime Marawood North Coach of the Year Todd Henderson, All-North secondteamers Talon Scheithauer and Seth Borchardt and honorable mentionees Ethan Cook and Blake Henderson, the Redmen exceeded expectations and have now set a high bar for 2025-26.
Todd Henderson, who just completed his fourth year as the program’s head coach, has led the Redmen to a 42-14 record the past two seasons with back-toback 12-4 Marawood marks.
Jed Henderson set the tone for his breakthrough season with double-doubles in points and rebounds in the the team’s first eight games. He scored in double digits in 26 of the team’s 29 games and had 10 or more rebounds in 20 of them. He also was an able passer, finding the open man when teams collapsed on him in the low or high post.
In 16 Marawood Conference games, Henderson averaged 17.0 points, 10.9 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game. Overall, his averages were 16.1 points, 10.3 rebounds and 2.2 assists per outing. He led the team with 52 blocked shots, 1.8 per game, and added a steal per game.
Using his size to get 109 offensive rebounds and good inside position, he shot 57.1% from the field (196 of 343). He was a 3-point threat, making 17 of 50 (34%) and made 58 of 94 free throws (61.7%).
Henderson scored a season-high 27 points and added 13 rebounds, two steals and two blocks in a 70-51 North win over Abbotsford on Feb. 4 and 17 points and 18 rebounds in 70-62 win at Abbotsford on Dec. 20. He also terrorized Athens in North play, scoring 23 points and pulling down 10 rebounds in a 79-60 home win on Dec. 17 and getting 22 points and 13 rebounds in a 71-49 road win Jan. 28. He had 23 points and eight boards in a conference title clinching 59-54 win at Prentice on Feb. 21 and 19 points in a key 67-65 home win over Phillips on Jan. 14.
Some notable non-conference outings for Henderson included 26 points and 11 boards in an 82-70 home win over Colby on Feb. 10, 21 points and 10 rebounds in an early-season 72-51 win against a Stanley-Boyd team that more than matched his size and the 25 points and 10 rebounds he had against Flambeau in a WIAA regional semifinal on March 7. He Above: Rib Lake's Jed Henderson, shown working through contact and scoring during the team’s WIAA Division 5 sectional semifinal win over rival Prentice, was named the 2024-25 Marawood North Player of the Year. Right: Todd Henderson, shown giving instruction from the sideline during Rib Lake’s WIAA Division 5 sectional final with Turtle Lake, was named the conference’s Coach of the Year after guiding the Redmen to their second straight North championship.
had 15 rebounds the next night in the regional final at Mellen.
Henderson was one of three unanimous choices by the conference’s coaching staffs for this year’s All-North team, joining returning first-team junior Riley Schultz-Becker of Athens and junior Cooper Michaski of Chequamegon. Prentice’s junior post Aidan Hause and Phillips senior Lane Abraham filled out the first team.
Two of last year’s first-teamers, juniors JJ Heikkinen of Phillips and Evan Lord of Prentice, fell to the second team. With Scheithauer and Borchardt both juniors and moving up to second-team status, the talent in the North next season could be quite impressive.
Both Scheithauer and Borchardt emerged as leaders for Rib Lake. Scheithauer, who also is Rib Lake’s representative on the North’s All-Defensive Team for the second straight year, often got the man-to-man assignment of guarding the opponent’s top player. He was Rib Lake’s top 3-point shooter, making 65 of 185, led the team in steals with 37 and dished out 65 assists.
In league play, Scheithauer averaged 13.1 points, 2.9 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.2 steals per game. Those numbers basically mirrored his overall averages as well.
His conference high was 21 points in a 77-40 home rout of Chequamegon on Jan. 17, where he was five of 12 from 3-point range. He had 20 points in the home win over Abbotsford with four assists and two steals. He had 19 points, five rebounds and three steals as Rib Lake held off an upset bid by Chequamegon 63-54 on Feb. 24, and he had 19 points, five rebounds, five assists and two steals in the home win over Athens.
He had what most will say was Rib Lake’s most memorable moment of the season, hitting a 3-pointer with 5.6 seconds left to give Rib Lake a 44-41 win over Prentice in Thursday’s WIAA sectional semifinal. He had 17 points in the win. He also hit the game-winning 3pointer in the final seconds in Rib Lake’s 55-54 Marawood win at Marathon Dec. 13. He had a career-high 29 points to go with four rebounds, two assists and two steals in Rib Lake’s 71-50 regional final win at Mellen.
Borchardt was easily the conference leader by averaging 5.1 assists per game overall, including 4.8 per North game. His scoring picked up noticeably in the second half of the season and he wound up averaging 11.6 points and 3.2 rebounds in Marawood play. Overall, he was at 12.3 points and 3.6 rebounds.
Borchardt finished the regular season with a then career-high of 23 points while adding three assists in a 67-58 loss at Phillips. He had 19 points and nine assists in the home win over Athens, 16 points and four assists in a 74-64 loss to a good Stratford squad and 13 points and seven assists in the home win over Phillips.
He had nine assists on two more occasions, first in a 52-42 non-conference win over Three Lakes on Jan. 31 and in a 63-25 rout of Tomahawk on Feb. 20. He had 11 points and seven assists in the win at Prentice. He had 16 points and seven assists in the Colby win.
Borchardt set a new career high of 28 points in the regional final win at Mellen, adding four assists and six rebounds.
Cook wasn’t a big scorer, averaging 3.2 points per game in 26 outings, but he gave Rib Lake toughness in rebounding and defense and added 1.8 steals per game. The 5-11 junior had conference highs of eight points at Phillips and seven points against Athens, seven rebounds in a 44-41 home loss to Prentice on Jan. 6 and in a 42-39 win over Wisconsin Rapids Assumption on Jan. 10. He had four assists in the home win over Phillips and at Chequamegon and Stratford. He had two steals in three conference games.
He scored a season-high nine points in the regional final win at Mellen and had nine rebounds in that game. He had nine rebounds against Colby and Tomahawk and seven against Turtle Lake in Saturday’s sectional final.
Blake Henderson, a 6-2 freshman set the foundation for what could be a very good four-year career with his debut season. He averaged 7.2 points, 5.2 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 1.1 blocked shots and 0.9 steals per game while growing into a vital all-around role for the Redmen. He hit two big 3-pointers late in the win over Phillips while scoring 15 points. He had 15 points in a 63-53 Marawood crossover win over Newman Catholic on Feb. 7, 12 at Chequamegon and 11 at Marathon.
His conference rebounding high was eight against Athens, but he had nine in a 62-59 double-overtime win at Northland Pines on Jan. 16, eight against a physical Owen-Withee team in a 64-50 loss Jan. 27 and against Gilman on Jan. 3. He had seven boards in games with Edgar, Abbotsford and Three Lakes. He dished out six assists in conference wins against Newman, Chequamegon and Phillips in February and had a season-high eight at Mellen. He blocked four shots in the regional semifinal with Flambeau and three at Stanley-Boyd.
Academic All-State
Rib Lake earned a prestigious off-thecourt honor last week when it received a Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association Team Academic All-State award. To be recognized, WBCA member coaches are required to nominate their team. Team grade point averages are weighted and based on cumulative credits attempted by the top 10 varsity players on each team as well as those players’ grade point averages.
Rib Lake’s score of 3.895 was the best in Division 5 and tied Division 4 team Oconto for the best in the state. Frederic (3.872) and Gillett (3.833) were second and third in Division 5. Kettle Moraine (3.761), Reedsburg (3.856) and Winneconne (3.869) were the top teams in Divisions 1, 2 and 3.
Individual Academic All-State awards required nominated players to hold a grade point average of at least 3.5 (on a 4.0 scale). Redmen hitting that mark include Borchardt, Ethan Cook, Lucas Cook, Brady Heiser, Blake Henderson, Jed Henderson, Chris Krause, Josiah Mann, Slade Scheithauer, Talon Scheithauer, Jackson Schutt and Jeremy Wiitala.
Seth Borchardt Second Team
Ethan Cook Hon. Mention
Blake Henderson Hon. Mention
MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS
