Lady Redmen continue to hang tough, fall to Falcons in overtime

RIB LAKE GIRLS BASKETBALL

The Rib Lake girls basketball still isn’t where it wants to be, but the Lady Redmen continued to show Friday night they are getting closer by pushing Abbotsford into overtime before the Falcons got out of town with a 47-43 Marawood North win.

After Rib Lake battled in the second half to extend the game another four minutes, Abbotsford outscored the home 9-5 to improve to 3-2 in Marawood Conference play and 6-2 overall.

Rib Lake fell to 1-3, 2-5. Abbotsford joined Athens as the second North team the Redmen have given a competitive push in a 10-day span.

“Defensively we did a great job holding Abbotsford to one shot,” Rib Lake head coach Wayne Mann said. “We have a few things to work on. Not giving up the baseline on drives is one of them.”

Rib Lake outrebounded the Falcons 31-29 and nearly got double-doubles from two players. Sophomore Danielle Mann did get one, coming off the bench to score 15 points and grab 10 rebounds. Senior Lauren Pelnis hit five of seven shots from the field and scored 11 points. She pulled down nine rebounds.

Rib Lake limited Abbotsford to 37% shooting from the field (16 of 43) and the Falcons made just one of five 3-point shots.

Rib Lake was five of 11 from long range, led by Mann, who was three for six. The Redmen made 17 of 43 field goal attempts overall. One key difference, however, came at the free throw line, where the Falcons made 14 of 24 shots, while Rib Lake was just four for 13.

Defenses ruled in the first half, which ended with Abbotsford leading 15-12. Pelnis had four points and Kamy Annala and Mann both hit a 3-pointer in the half, while Abbotsford was led by Sommer Brodhagen’s seven points.

Mann scored 12 of her points for Rib Lake after halftime, Molly Heiser scored all eight of her points in the last 22 minutes and Pelnis added seven more. Addison Gumz hit a second-half 3-pointer. Josie Scheithauer finished the game with three points.

Regulation ended with the teams tied at 38-38.

Brodhagen finished with 14 points to lead Abbotsford, while Sydney Falteisek had a 10-point, 11-rebound double-double. Adriana Fuentes had nine points and five rebounds, while Briseida Escalera had eight points, seven rebounds and four assists.

Heiser had four rebounds for Rib Lake, while Annala had three. Annala had two assists. Mann led Rib Lake with three steals, while Annala, Gumz, Pelnis and Heiser added two each.

“Offensively we need to get the ball to our post players,” Wayne Mann said. “We are struggling in getting our offense started, so that will be a priority in practice. We had a few too many turnovers late in the game. We will need to show more patience on offense.”

Rib Lake is enjoying a two-week holiday break from competition. The Lady Redmen will return to the court on Monday, Jan. 3 with a non-conference game at Colby. They’ll be at Prentice the next night to resume Marawood North play against the rival Buccaneers. Both of those games tip at 7:15 p.m.