North-leading Redmen win big, get tested twice

Athens hung with the Rib Lake boys basketball team for about 23 minutes Tuesday, but the Redmen eventually broke down the Blue Jays’ defense and got on a big second-half run to pull away for a 71-49 Marawood North win.

The win kept Rib Lake two games ahead of Phillips atop the North standings with both teams having six conference games remaining. Rib Lake now sits at 8-2 in Marawood play and 10-5 overall.

Athens slipped to 2-8, 3-11, but the Jays gave Rib Lake all it could handle into the second half. Trailing 29-20 at halftime, Athens came out of the break with a rebound basket from Dax Diethelm and scores from Riley Schultz-Becker and Kam Zarnke to pull within three. Slade Scheithauer sank a 3pointer and Jed Henderson scored in transition, but two Brock Beaty baskets around a Seth Borchardt driving score for Rib Lake had Athens still within two possessions at 36-30 with 13:35 to play.

After a timeout, Athens got out of its 2-3 zone and tried a stretch of man-to-man and Rib Lake found its rhythm against that. Slade Scheithauer, who got the start with Ethan Cook not available, hit his second 3-pointer of the half, Talon Scheithauer hit two free throws, Borchardt scored off a steal and Blake Henderson knocked down a 3-pointer to force another Athens timeout at 48-30.

That didn’t stop the momentum as Rib Lake kept the ball moving and cut and passed its way through the defense. Lucas Cook had two assists to Borchardt, and Borchardt assisted to a cutting Slade Scheithauer as the Rib Lake run extended the lead to 60-38. Jed Henderson capped a 22-point night with a couple of scores at the end of press breaks and Slade Scheithauer assisted on a Blake Henderson three-point play as the lead got up to 25 in the closing moments.

After Henderson’s 22, the scoring for Rib Lake was balanced. Borchardt scored eight of his 13 in the second half. Slade Scheithauer scored a season-high 12 points, while Blake Henderson and Talon Scheithauer had eight points apiece. Brady Heiser gave Rib Lake a lift inside in Cook’s absence with six points. Jeremy Wiitala’s baseline jumper gave the Redmen their last two points.

Schultz-Becker led Athens with 14 points, while Beaty added 13.

The Redmen will take a quick break from conference play Friday by hosting the Three Lakes Blue Jays in a 7:15 p.m. tip time. The Redmen host improving North rival Abbotsford on Tuesday at 7:15 p.m. The Falcons are just 2-8 in league play but are up to 6-9 overall and took Prentice to the wire Tuesday, losing 81-78.

O-W 64, Rib Lake 50

On Monday, Owen-Withee came to Rib Lake for a rematch of last year’s WIAA Division 5 regional final and bounced the Redmen again 64-50 in non-conference play.

The Redmen learned some things they’ll need to fix if they see the Blackhawks again this post-season. Owen-Withee was able to set a tone with its physicality, has some good athletes who were key in the team’s sectional final run last March and the school’s eight-man football state championship this November and the Redmen learned taking care of the ball would be key if a rematch occurs.

“We got a little rushed at times and we threw the ball away, had some turnovers and panicked,” Rib Lake head coach Todd Henderson said. “We had a few too many turnovers for a game like this. I think the effort was there. We can definitely play a little better, move a little better on offense. Our shot selection was the not the best at times. I thought we got in a hurry. There were times where we’d make a little run they’d have an answer and put a stop to it. It was just hard to string together a couple of stops and make that big run to get back into the game.”

Seth Borchardt had a hot hand early for the Redmen, scoring nine of the team’s first 10 points as the Redmen moved the ball well and led 10-8.

But things stalled out offensively for a stretch against the Blackhawks, who switched between their 1-2-2 halfcourt trap and solid man-to-man defenses. A 120 run turned the game in Owen-Withee’s favor at 20-10 and the Blackhawks led the rest of the way.

Junior big man Jack Wendler was vital to Owen-Withee’s first-half success as he was tough to move off the blocks and scored 10 points. Guard Mason Gay also had 10 points in the half, with a couple of 3s, the second of which came at the buzzer off of a broken play and put Owen-Withee up 33-22 at the break.

“They had a couple of guys we knew we needed to stop,” Todd Henderson said. “Mason Gay got hot from 3 and Wendler had 10 points inside. We just have to do a better job of defending that.”

Rib Lake generated more offense in the second half, but the Redmen weren’t able to combine that with enough stops to really put pressure on the Blackhawks, who are 10-4 overall and part of a fourway tie atop the Eastern Cloverbelt Conference at 5-2. Blake Henderson hit a 3 to make it 38-27 and got an offensive putback to answer two Gay free throws to make it 40-29. Talon Scheithauer’s 3pointer got the deficit to 10 at 42-32, but that was answered by a 7-0 Owen-Withee spurt that included a Colin Fritz 3-pointer, a Winston Poehler hoop and a steal and score by Dominic Sherwood. Borchardt hit a 3 and made two of three free throws to make it 49-37 with 10:20 left and Blake Henderson’s 3 made it 51-40. Rib Lake tried a 1-3-1 zone for a stretch and Owen-Withee got 3s from Fritz and Gay to put it away at 60-44.

Borchardt led Rib Lake with 16 points. Jed and Blake Henderson both scored 13 apiece. Talon Scheithauer scored six on a pair of 3s and Heiser hit a short jumper in the first half.

Gay scored 18 to lead Owen-Withee, Wendler finished with 13 points and Fritz added 12.

Rib Lake had 21 turnovers compared to Owen-Withee’s 16. Owen-Withee shot 43.1% from the field overall (25 of 58) compared to Rib Lake’s 32.1% (17 of 53). Rib Lake had a slight 37-36 rebounding edge. Jed Henderson had 11 rebounds and Blake Henderson had eight. Borchardt had six assists and Jed Henderson had three steals.

Eagles 61, Redmen 44

A 3-point shooting spree by Auburndale knocked out Rib Lake early in a crossover matchup of Mararwood Conference divisional leaders Thursday night on the Eagles’ home floor.

Auburndale made 12 of 20 3-point attempts with all 12 of those makes coming in the game’s first 23 minutes. By then, the Eagles were comfortably ahead 53-28. They coasted from there, improving to 13-1 overall and 8-1 in Marawood play at the time.

The Redmen matched Auburndale for about the first seven minutes. Borchardt, Talon Scheithauer and Ethan Cook all knocked down triples to push Rib Lake to an 11-7 lead. A Jed Henderson score answered a triple from Peyton Weinfurter for a 13-10 lead. Then Auburndale took off.

A 14-0 run turned the game quickly. It included 3s from Josh Lundgren and Blake Raab and Ayden Raab’s steal, spin move and score capped it at 24-13. Jed Henderson scored off a Slade Scheithauer assist and Talon Scheithauer hit a three to get Rib Lake within six, but treys from Ayden Raab, Lundgren and Keegan Empey pushed Auburndale out to a 37-21 halftime lead.

Lundgren hit two more 3s to start the second half and Blake Raab knocked down two more not long after that to give Auburndale its 25-point lead. Rib Lake whittled it down to 16 at 57-41 but never threatened to make a serious run.

“Auburndale was a tough one,” Todd Henderson said. “They just shot really well. I think they were 60% from 3 and 33% from two. That was kind of a backwards stat there.”

Talon Scheithauer did have a big offensive night for the Redmen with 18 points. He hit four of eight 3-point shots. Jed Henderson added 13 points and 10 rebounds. From there, the scoring was slim. Blake Henderson had four points and four rebounds. Borchardt, Ethan Cook and Lucas Cook finished with three points each. Slade Scheithauer had five rebounds and two assists. Jed Henderson had three assists.

Blake Raab ended up with 17 points for Auburndale. Lundgren scored 16 and Weinfurter finished with 13. The Eagles finished 46.3% overall from the field (19 of 41) while Rib Lake shot 36.4% (16 of 44). The Redmen were six of 20 behind the arc.

Rib Lake’s Blake Henderson and Ethan Cook try to disrupt a shot by Owen-Withee’s Winston Poehler during the second half of Monday’s non-conference matchup. The Blackhawks won the matchup between potential post-season opponents 64-50. MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS