RIB LAKE BOYS BASKETBALL - Redmen clinch at Prentice, avoid upset at Chequamegon

RIB LAKE BOYS BASKETBALL

The Rib Lake Redmen found themselves in a secondhalf dogfight Monday but kept their poise down the stretch and got out of Park Falls with a 63-54 win over the Chequamegon Screaming Eagles, the last-place team in the Marawood North.

The Redmen led 27-16 at one point in the first half and 42-30 on an Ethan Cook pull-up jumper four minutes into the second half. But Chequamegon’s all-conference standout Cooper Michalski got a three-point play to start his personal 7-0 run and suddenly, the Screaming Eagles were energized.

The full run reached 15-2 when Norson Rodriguez banked in a 3-pointer for the second time in the game and gave Chequamegon a 45-44 lead. The lead didn’t last long. Talon Scheithauer’s offensive rebound led to an Ethan Cook basket when Seth Borchardt made the extra pass in the lane to turn a good look into a great one. Scheithauer took a charge against Michalski and that was followed by Borchardt’s score in the post. Scheithauer made a free throw, then Cook got a steal and wound up getting the ball back from Blake Scheithauer for a left-handed layup. Blake Henderson’s leaner in the lane made it 53-45 with 4:15 left.

Chequamegon got the lead down to 55-51 when Michalski rebounded a 3-point miss by Sean Morgan and turned it into his own three-point play with 1:21 left. But Rib Lake was able to nail it down from there from the free throw line.

“I knew it was going to be a closer battle than the first time, but I was hoping it wasn’t going to be this close,” Rib Lake head coach Todd Henderson said. “They did a good job just battling back and not giving up. When they made a run at us, we kind of battled back. There were some times where we may have taken a couple quick shots. We could’ve been a little more patient. When push came to shove in a sense, our kids responded well and they got the rebounds, got the stops and made their free throws when they really needed to.”

Talon Scheithauer led the Redmen with 19 points, 13 of which came in the second half. He had five rebounds and three steals. Borchardt scored nine of his 13 points in the second half and Blake Henderson added 12 points. Borchardt had six rebounds, while Henderson led the team with six assists and had five boards. Jed Henderson was held to eight points by the Chequamegon defense, but he was the game’s leading rebounder with 14.

Ethan Cook gave Rib Lake six key points, all in the second half, six rebounds and four assists. Slade Scheithauer hit a first-half 3-pointer and Lucas Cook had a second-half bucket.

Michalski, just a junior, poured in 26 points and had 10 rebounds for Chequamegon, who fell to 114 in conference play and 3-20 overall.

Rib Lake 59, Prentice 54

Rib Lake clinched the outright title Friday by outlasting rival Prentice 59-54 in an entertaining back-and-forth game played on the Buccaneers' home floor. Down by eight early in the second half and down by five with less than 10 minutes left, the Redmen outscored the Bucs 18-8 down the stretch to eliminate Prentice and Phillips from any chance of sharing the conference championship.

Jed Henderson scored 23 points on nine-of-13 shooting from the field and Borchardt had 11 points, eight assists and four rebounds, but seemingly everyone who got on the floor had a key play at some point to allow Rib Lake to salvage a split of the season series.

“I think we just played well as a team,” Jed Henderson said of the title-clinching win. “We hustled. We took care of the ball. I think we just did what we needed to do. They’re a really good team too. They have a lot of guys coming back next year. They’ll be good again next year.”

“When we play Prentice, every single time we know it’s going to be a battle,” Borchardt said. “It’s a rivalry. We made sure to tell ourselves when they have a run, we need to have a run. Just keep your composure, keep playing hard.”

Prentice took its largest lead at 40-32 on an Eliah Harding 3-pointer with 14:01 to play, but the Redmen quickly cut into that lead. Jed Henderson made two free throws. Blake Henderson's steal led to a three-point play for Borchardt and Borchardt tossed an inbound pass that gave Jed Henderson an easy two to make it 40-39. Prentice went up 46-41, but Borchardt again fed Jed Henderson for two then freshman Slade Scheithauer hit a key 3-pointer to tie the game at 46-46 with 8:42 left. Thirty seconds later, Borchardt got a steal and Talon Scheithauer got the ball to Jed Henderson for the go-ahead basket.

Aidan Hause, who was a handful inside for Prentice with 13 points and nine rebounds, tied it. Talon Scheithauer's free throw with 5:08 put Rib Lake ahead for good. Borchardt made one of Rib Lake's defensive plays of the game by poking the ball away from a Buc ball handler. It went right to Ethan Cook, who passed it ahead to Borchardt for a layup. At the 3:33 mark, Borchardt rebounded a missed 3 by Cook and slipped a quick pass from the free throw line down to Jed Henderson to push the Redmen's lead to 53-48.

From there, Rib Lake it away with defensive stops and free throws. The Buccaneers missed a couple front ends of bonus opportunities as well.

Rib Lake led 14-7 early, but Evan Lord and Hause led a charge from the home team that put it ahead at the half. Lord had nine points in a run that got Prentice within 21-19. Hause then got the next four points inside to give Prentice a 23-21 edge. Hause worked a perfect pick and roll with Matti Heikkinen and scored just before the buzzer to put Prentice on top 29-27. Lord hit two early 3s and Hause scored again prior to Harding's 3 as the Bucs built their eight-point lead early in the second half.

Talon Scheithauer scored 11 points with a couple of 3s. Slade Scheithauer added six key points. Blake Henderson and Ethan Cook scored four points each and both grabbed three rebounds. Lucas Cook had two rebounds. Jed Henderson led the team with seven boards and he had two assists.

Lord led all scorers with 27 points. He made all eight of his free throws and was eight of 20 from the field. He added five rebounds.

Rib Lake shot 51.2% from the field (21 of 41) overall, including 17 of 24 on twopoint shots. The Redmen were 13 of 20 from the free throw line compared to Prentice's nine of 14. Prentice had a 30-26 advantage on the boards with 14 of its rebounds coming on the offensive end. Prentice turned the ball over 11 times and Rib Lake cashed in with 14 points. The Redmen had just nine turnovers.

“It was a good playoff atmosphere and it’s always good to get that against a rival,” Todd Henderson said. “It was a fun way to wrap it up like that. They’re a good team with good kids up there.”

Redmen 63, Hatchets 25

On Thursday, Brady Heiser took advantage of his Senior Night, pouring in 15 points and adding six rebounds and two steals in a 63-25 non-conference win over an overmatched Tomahawk squad.

Heiser made six of his 13 shots from the field, including his first 3-pointer of the season. Slade Scheithauer, Talon Scheithauer and Jed Henderson added 11 points apiece.

It took the Redmen a few minutes to get warmed up, but an 11-0 run got them out to a 15-4 lead as each Scheithauer hit a 3pointer around Heiser’s first bucket. Heiser’s three-point play opened up a 27-9 lead with 1:33 left in the half. Lucas Cook added a score and Heiser scored off a nifty spin move for a 3110 halftime lead.

Borchardt’s 3pointer made it 4112 early in the second half. After a 3-pointer by Tomahawk’s Colton Seslar, the Redmen put it away with a 15-2 surge, that included five points from Slade Scheithauer and five from Heiser, including his 3-ball. Rib Lake’s lead got as high as 43 late in the game.

Slade Scheithauer had five assists and three rebounds. Borchardt had seven points and nine assists. Blake Henderson scored four points and had four rebounds and four assists. Jeremy Wiitala and Lucas Cook had two points each. Jed Henderson had seven rebounds.

Seslar, Dominic Boos and Tyler Sundquist scored five points apiece for Tomahawk.

Brady Heiser