WIAA DIV. 5 BOYS BASKETBALL REGIONAL CHAMPIONS - Redmen roll in second half, beat top seed

WIAA DIV. 5 BOYS BASKETBALL

REGIONAL CHAMPIONS

One scoring option was taken away, but the Rib Lake Redmen had others to turn to Saturday and because they have those options, they are WIAA Division 5 boys basketball regional champions.

The Mellen Granite Diggers and foul trouble helped keep Marawood North Player of the Year Jed Henderson scoreless in Saturday’s regional final. But Talon Scheithauer and Seth Borchardt notched prep career highs with 29 and 28 points, respectively, Ethan Cook hit two big second-half shots and Henderson still found ways to make winning plays as the 20-7 Redmen earned the program’s first regional title since 2020 with a 7150 win on top-seeded Mellen’s home floor.

Rib Lake’s reward is a third meeting of the season with its Marawood North rival Prentice (16-8), tonight, Thursday in a WIAA Division 5 sectional semifinal to be played at Tomahawk at 7 p.m.

A back-and-forth battle Saturday between the Redmen and Granite Diggers was starting to lean in Rib Lake’s favor when Henderson was whistled for his fourth foul with 11:48 left and the Redmen leading 47-41. While Henderson had uncharacteristically missed all eight of his shots from the field, he had 15 rebounds at that point and had dished out six assists.

Henderson went to the bench and never had to return to the floor as his teammates finished the game with an impressive 24-9 run to win going away.

“It was a really good team effort,” Henderson said. “Obviously I got in foul trouble. I feel like Mellen was kind of focused on me, but Talon and Seth stepped up. Even when I was on the bench, I didn’t have a worry because I know these guys are such good ball players and they’re going to pick any slack up. I’m just so blessed to be on such a great team. It’s so much fun.”

“I just think as juniors and leaders of this team we knew we had to step up and just make shots, especially without Jed,” Scheithauer said. “He’s a big presence for us. I wouldn’t say we were taking over the game, but we were making the shots that we needed to and keeping our team rolling without him.”

Mellen (22-4), led by the high-scoring, athletic and sizable trio of Northern Lights Conference Co-Player of the Year Xander Beeksma, Ryan Henri and Jehiel Zielke, had first-half success getting one-on-one matchups inside, plus Hayden Lawver had eight points with a pair of 3s as the Granite Diggers turned an early nine-point deficit into a 34-32 halftime lead. Rib Lake tore apart Mellen’s zone defense early, including a personal nine-point run from Scheithauer that put the Redmen up 11-4, but the Diggers made some tweaks, Rib Lake’s ball movement slowed and points were harder to come by for a stretch.

“We started well and then they made some adjustments and we got a little out of rhythm,” Rib Lake head coach Todd Henderson said. “But then we got our rules figured back out, we got some good cuts. We figured out it was better to just keep Jed in the high post and let him come get the ball and pass out of it as they collapsed on him. That opened up things.”

Two of Jed Henderson’s six assists had just come moments before his fourth foul, one on a backdoor cut to Borchardt and another on a kickout to Scheithauer for a 3-pointer. The offense didn’t skip a beat when he left, thanks to a shot of energy from Cook.

On its very next possession, Rib Lake patiently worked the ball against Mellen’s zone. Lucas Cook got the ball in the low post and fired it out to Ethan Cook on the left wing, who didn’t hesitate. Cook, who averages about three points per game, hit nothing but net to open up a 50-41 lead with 11:09 left. After a Bryce Maier free throw, Cook hit a pull-up 15-foot jumper from the left baseline to make it 52-42 with 9:37 to go.

“Big momentum shifter,” said Cook, who just missed a double-double with nine points and nine rebounds. “I hit a couple shots, and it got the bench going. The rest of the guys got pretty hyped and from there we never really let off the gas.

“It was a perfect opportunity,” he said of his 3-pointer. “I was wide open. I knew we needed some sort of momentum shift. I went up, shot it and hit it. I gave a little scream at the bench. We all got good and hyped.”

“Ethan did a good job stepping up,” Todd Henderson said. “He hit a big 3, he got some key rebounds, played some good, tough defense. He’s a kid that doesn’t always show up in the stat line but he’s a leader by his actions on the court. He’s one of those kids that is tough, he never backs down, he never quits.”

After Cook’s second make, Rib Lake called a timeout and went to a 2-3 zone defensively. Mellen didn’t make a field goal against that until a Zielke 3-pointer with 3:02 left. By then, the Redmen had opened up a 61-44 lead, thanks to a Scheithauer score off a Blake Henderson assist out of the high post, two Scheithauer free throws, a Scheithauer drive from the left side after he picked up a loose ball and Borchardt’s backdoor score off a Scheithauer assist. Mellen scored just 16 second-half points.

“Being able go to the 2-3 zone really helped,” Todd Henderson said. “The guys played it well. We had seen on film that a team was successful against them doing that, so we took that idea and ran with it in the second half. We haven’t played it much. We played it well against Stratford but they just shot well against it. I think the pressure was on here and it’s hard to hit those 3s against a 2-3 zone when the pressure is on.”

A night after getting 42 free throws but only making 24 against Flambeau, Rib Lake made nine of 12 in the last 9:08 and Cook and Scheithauer had clinching layups in the last two minutes.

While ball movement is the most often the key to Rib Lake’s offensive success, it is still in the hands of Borchardt and Scheithauer most of the time. On Saturday, there wasn’t a safer place for it as they combined for 57 points and just three of Rib Lake’s six turnovers. Borchardt had six rebounds and four assists. Scheithauer had four rebounds and three assists. Rib Lake had 22 assists on 25 made field goals and outrebounded the Granite Diggers 42-27.

“They did a good job handling the ball, handling their pressure, making good passes and stepping up on defense when they needed to,” Todd Henderson said. “I thought Talon was really strong taking it to the hole a few times. He’s been locked in hitting some 3s for us too lately. When the team needed it, he stepped up, giving us points when we’ve needed them and that’s been fun to watch.”

“I love this team so much,” Borchardt said. “We’re very balanced. Our leading scorer goes out, not having a great game and we’re able to step up and score a lot.”

Blake Henderson, a freshman who played 35 big minutes, scored five points and had seven rebounds and a team-high eight assists in the win.

“After the first few minutes I was definitely finding a groove,” he said. “I missed the first shot, but after that I hit the next one and got more confident. Every game I’m just getting better and more confident.”

Henri led Mellen with 17 points and 10 rebounds. Beeksma scored 11 points and Zielke added 10 points and eight rebounds.

With Rib Lake’s win and Prentice’s 6053 win at Bayfield in another regional final, the two Marawood North rivals took out the half-bracket’s top two seeds and the top two teams in the Northern Lights Conference. For the Rib Lake players who were part of last season’s crushing regional final loss to Owen-Withee, Saturday’s win certainly brought a different feeling.

“That was a totally 180 different feeling from a year ago,” Todd Henderson said. “That was utter heartbreak and here it was not down to the wire. We just had to hang on and it was kinda fun to just enjoy and watch the guys perform under pressure there at the end.”

“I just think our whole team played really well,” Jed Henderson said. “I just try to go out every night and do what I can to help the team win. Tonight I was just trying to find open guys. I felt like Seth and Talon were doing a great job getting inside and finishing. Mellen has some really great athletes on that team. For not being the tallest and strongest guys, they were doing a great job finishing inside and Ethan came in, stepped up, hit that 3. As soon as he hit that 3 I said this game’s over.”

Rib Lake’s Seth Borchardt finds himself surrounded in the high post by Mellen’s Ryan Henri (5), Hayden Lawver (11), Jehiel Zielke and Brooks Mesko (13) during the first half of Saturday’s WIAA Division 5 regional final. Borchardt had a huge game with 28 points, six rebounds and four assists in the team’s 71-50 win. MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS