RIB LAKE BOYS BASKETBALL - Rib Lake boys fly by Athens; rally from 13 down at Marathon
RIB LAKE BOYS BASKETBALL
The Rib Lake Redmen nearly had three players score 20 points as their best offensive execution of the season led to a 79-60 win over the Athens Blue Jays Tuesday in the Marawood North opener for both teams.
Combined with two Marawood Conference crossover wins, the victory puts Rib Lake in first place in the North in the very early going at 3-0, a game over 2-1 Phillips. The Redmen are 3-2 overall.
Jed Henderson was nearly unstoppable in the paint in the first half and scored 23 points for the Redmen. Talon Scheithauer and Seth Borchardt each added 19 points in a game Rib Lake led the whole way except for trailing 2-1.
Henderson scored 19 of his points in the first half. He hit a 3-pointer, got a three-point play and added two scores inside in a 14-3 run that turned a 24-17 lead into a 38-20 bulge late in the first half. Ethan Cook added four more late points for a 42-25 halftime lead.
Scheithauer hit two quick 3s to start an 11-point second half for himself and send the Redmen toward a 50-30 lead. Athens made a little run, getting within 52-41, but a rebound bucket by Borchardt, a score by Henderson, Scheithauer’s hoop off a Borchardt assist, a 3-pointer by Slade Scheithauer and scores by Lucas Cook and Brady Heiser widened the lead back to 18 at 65-47.
Ethan Cook finished with seven points, Blake Henderson had four points, Slade Scheithauer finished with three and Lucas Cook and Heiser both wound up with two.
Athens got a huge night from Riley Schultz-Becker who scored 29 points, while making a living by penetrating the lane and hitting short to mid-range shots there. Jordan Frahm scored 10, eight in the second half, and Dax Diethelm added nine. With the loss the Blue Jays fell to 1-2 in Marawood play and 1-5 overall.
Rib Lake stays in Marawood North play Friday, visiting Abbotsford at 7:15 p.m. The Redmen will then be off for two weeks before hosting Gilman in non-conference play Jan. 3.
Rib Lake 55, Marathon 54
Talon Scheithauer’s 3-point shot with 15 seconds left gave Rib Lake its only lead of the second half and capped the Redmen’s rally from a 13-point deficit in a big 55-54 Marawood crossover win at Marathon.
The 3-ball was Scheithauer’s third in the late comeback and he finished as the game’s high scorer with 18 points. Borchardt also hit a big 3 in the rally and finished with 13 points, four rebounds and four assists. Blake Henderson had his best game early in his freshman season, scoring 11 points to go with five rebounds, four steals and three assists.
The Redmen led by as much as eight in the first half at 20-12 following a threepoint play from Scheithauer with 9:58 left. Borchardt’s 3-pointer made it 25-18 with 6:25 left in the half.
Marathon then switched out of its manto- man defense, going instead to a 1-3-1 zone, something Rib Lake struggled with in its first loss of the season to Columbus Catholic, and the offense slowed when the Red Raiders made that move.
A Cody Radtke 3-pointer gave Marathon a 32-28 halftime lead. After Borchardt’s steal and score to start the second half, the Red Raiders got a Garrett Bracewell 3-pointer, free throws from Drew Woelfel and another Radtke triple. When True Thurs scored with 11:15 to go, the home team’s lead was up to 43-30. Rib Lake chipped away and cut the deficit to 43-36, but another Marathon surge got it back to 50-37 when Thurs put back his own miss with 8:10 left.
Twelve of Rib Lake’s 18 turnovers happened in the second half.
But Borchardt’s diagonal pass down low to Jed Henderson beat the zone and started the comeback. The defense held for a couple of minutes and Scheithauer finally hit back-to-back 3s to make it 5045 with 4:35 left. As Marathon continued to miss shots, Borchardt’s triple got the deficit down to 52-48 with 1:48 left. Blake Henderson got a steal and two free throws to make it a one-score game with 1:20 to go.
Landon Sneider sank two big bonus free throws for Marathon with 57 seconds left. Borchardt missed a 3, but Scheithauer ripped the rebound away and fed Jed Henderson for a layup that made it 54-52 with 36 seconds to go. The Red Raiders missed a bonus free throw –– they were five of 10 from the line in the game –– and the Redmen worked the ball to Scheithauer, who worked off a Jed Henderson screen in the high post and calmly drilled the go-ahead 3 over Thurs from the right wing. Marathon never got a shot off after that, turning the ball over under the hoop in the last two seconds.
Jed Henderson had 10 points and 10 rebounds in the win, plus he blocked five shots. Ethan Cook added a first-half threepoint play and three assists.
Radtke’s 15 points paced Marathon, who fell to 1-3 at the time. Thurs had 10 and Woelfel, Bracewell and Sneider scored nine apiece.
Crossover wins have not been easy to get historically for Marawood North teams, but Rib Lake improved to 2-0 in that category for this year, with four more games to come in January and February.
