RIB LAKE BOYS BASKETBALL - Redmen fall short in high-scoring game, but earn title share
RIB LAKE BOYS BASKETBALL
The Rib Lake Redmen backed into a share of the Marawood North boys basketball championship after losing an entertaining 74-64 crossover matchup at Stratford Friday, but they’re looking forward to three more opportunities to do the work themselves to earn the outright title.
The Redmen went toe-to-toe with the state’s seventhranked Division 4 team Friday, but every time they tried to take command, the Tigers would quickly reel them in. Eventually, a string of three straight 3-pointers in an 11-0 late second-half run pushed the Tigers over the top as they improved to 18-2 overall at the time and 11-2 in the Marawood, a game behind 12-1 Auburndale in the South Division.
While Rib Lake slid to 10-3 in Marawood play, they remained three games ahead of 7-6 Phillips, who lost 8358 at Marathon Friday. That clinched a title tie for the Redmen with three league games left. The Redmen are 146 overall.
Prentice beat Newman Catholic Friday to pull into a second-place tie with Phillips. Rib Lake is at Prentice this Friday for its first chance to knock the Buccaneers and Loggers out for good. Tip time is 7:15 p.m. Prentice is the only North team to beat Rib Lake so far this season, pulling off a 44-41 upset on Jan. 6.
Rib Lake is at Chequamegon Monday and closes Marawood play and the regular season Feb. 27 at Phillips. Rib Lake and Stratford both shot the basketball well in Friday’s contest. The Tigers shot 57.4% from the field (27 of 47), including 10 of 21 from 3-point range. Rib Lake shot 54.5% (24 of 44), including eight of 20 from long range.
The key difference was turnovers. Stratford turned 15 Rib Lake miscues into 26 points, while the Tigers only gave the ball away eight times, which Rib Lake turned into eight points.
Jed Henderson led three Redmen in double figures in the loss with an 18-point, 13-rebound double-double. He added four assists. Seth Borchardt had 16 points and four assists. Talon Scheithauer had 14 points and four rebounds.
Stratford’s Riley Spindler was the biggest thorn in Rib Lake’s side defensively. The 5-9 junior hit six of nine 3point tries while scoring 25 points for the Tigers. Drew Bruesewitz scored 18 points and Kaden Foster added 16.
Henderson scored twice and Scheithauer hit a 3pointer to give Rib Lake a quick 7-0 lead, but Stratford wiped that early lead out with a 10-2 run. A 10-0 run gave the Redmen a 25-15 lead and included a 3-pointer from Slade Scheithauer, a hoop in the paint from Lucas Cook and two free throws from Slade Scheithauer after a wellrun, patient possession by the Redmen.
Bruesewitz, though, drained two 3s around a Foster steal and score. A hoop by Brooks Vanderhoof capped that 10-0 that eliminated Rib Lake’s lead in 90 seconds. Borchardt’s shot with two seconds left tied the game at 29-29 at halftime.
Blake Henderson dropped in a 3-pointer for his first points of the game, igniting a 7-0 run that put Rib Lake up 38-31 early in the second half. But Spindler took care of that and more with a basket and two 3s. Brady Berg hit a mid-range jumper as well in that 10-0 run that put the Tigers on top 41-38.
Stratford went up by as much as four, but Rib Lake pulled even at 55-55 on a Borchardt 3-pointer with 6:12 to play.
Spindler countered 20 seconds later with a triple and added another. Foster’s 3-pointer with 4:15 left and a score by Vanderhoof put Stratford up 66-55. Blake Henderson ended the run with his second 3-pointer of the half and Borchardt hit one to make it 68-62 with 1:55 left, but Rib Lake couldn’t get any closer.
Blake Henderson finished with seven points and five assists. Slade Scheithauer had five points and two assists and Cook scored four. Ethan Cook had four assists.
Before Rib Lake’s three-game stretch of conference games to end the year, the team is playing tonight, Thursday, at home against the Tomahawk Hatchets at 7:15 p.m. The game was pushed back 48 hours after school was canceled Tuesday due to the extreme cold.
