Raiders put early end to suspense in blowout victory

MEDFORD BOYS BASKETBALL

Bottled up by an unexpected nine-day break in the schedule, the Medford Raiders shot out of the gates and put a quick end to Friday’s contest with Tomahawk, winning 72-16 at Raider Hall.

Medford’s ball pressure helped force 34 Hatchet turnovers and held the visitors to just four points through the first 15 minutes. By that time, Medford led 39-4 and was well on its way to bumping its overall record to 4-0 and its Great Northern Conference mark to 2-0.

“I was happy,” Medford head coach Ryan Brown said. “I thought the guys were pretty hungry and motivated. They set the tone defensively after having that week off with last week’s game being canceled. That’s what we need. I told them before the game, it doesn’t matter who we play. It doesn’t matter if they’re the best team in the state or the worst team in the state or anywhere in between. We have to set the tone defensively and keep getting better there because we know our schedule is going to ramp up here once we hit Christmas break.”

While Medford scored 45 of its points following Tomahawk turnovers, the Raiders were also pleased to see outside shots continue to fall, a trend that had started in its previous game Dec. 7 against Merrill. The Raiders were six of 12 from 3-point range in the first half, which ended with the Raiders leading 41-7. Logan Baumgartner, who finished with 20 points, hit a trio of 3s in the opening half, while Joe Sullivan, Zach Rudolph and Sam Blair added one apiece.

The early lead allowed the Raiders to get all 15 players time on the floor. After Sullivan’s 17 points the rest of the scoring was balanced with Tanner Hraby scoring 10, Rudolph scoring six on a pair of 3, Quinton Tlusty scoring six, Blair scoring five, Caleb Guden adding three, Nick Buchan getting his first varsity points on a first-half bucket and Charlie Kleist hitting a free throw.

But Brown was most happy with the defensive effort by everyone.

“That was probably the best part about it,” he said. “No matter who was in the game defensively we were in good position. We got pressure on the ball by all of them. We gave up the middle maybe one time all night. That’s what you have to do when you’re going to come into the game as a sub. You have to be able to play defense and take care of the ball. We got a little bit sloppy right at the end, but other than that I thought we did a pretty good job of taking care of the ball too.”

Any hope Tomahawk had of keeping the game semi-close was eliminated quickly after halftime. Sullivan scored twice off steals and Baumgartner sank left-corner 3-pointer off a set inbound play. Baumgartner turned a defensive rebound into an assist to Sullivan and then he turned a steal into another assist to Sullivan. Tanner Hraby’s steal and score and a free throw by Guden opened up a 50-point lead at 57-7 with 14:13 left.

Tanner Hraby led Medford with seven total rebounds, six of which came on the offensive end. Brigham Kelley had five boards. Sullivan led Medford with five assists and four steals. Kleist and Baumgartner had three steals each. Tanner Hraby had three assists.

Tyler Jablonski led Tomahawk (0-2, 0-4) with five points.

Brown said there was no doubt the Raiders were itching to play after the time off, which was lengthened by the postponement of a Dec. 10 game in Antigo, which was rescheduled to Feb. 3.

“I wasn’t too worried about our intensity,” he said. “We really harped on them in practice all week to bring it on the defensive end. We tried to make things really competitive. Guys did a great job of that. I think they were ready to play. I think even some of our starters and guys who are used to a lot of minutes, they did a good job of being good teammates and understanding it was a game where a lot of guys could get minutes. That’s hard when you’ve been sitting out for 10 days. But those minutes will come and those games will come.”

The Raiders hosted Altoona Tuesday in a game played after this week’s early holiday deadline for The Star News. The ramping up in the schedule Brown talked about starts next week when the Raiders attend the Sheboygan North Raider Shootout Dec. 29-30. Medford will play Oshkosh North (7-1) at 6 p.m. on day one, while Sheboygan North (4-1) meets Plymouth (3-3) at 7:30 p.m. Oshkosh North was ranked eighth in Division 2 in last week’s WisSports.net state coaches poll. The losers will play in the consolation game at 6 p.m. on day two, followed by the championship game at 7:30 p.m.