Raiders finish strong with Senior Night win over West

MEDFORD BOYS BASKETBALL

Wausau West got some open looks from long range and hit them in the first half, but the Medford Raiders cooled off the Warriors in the second half and used a late 16-0 run to pull away for a 67-44 win Friday to close out a 20-4 regular season.

A day later than planned due to Thursday’s winter storm, the Raiders celebrated Senior Night by getting all seven seniors into the game early and putting six of them into the scoring column, led by Logan Baumgartner’s 24 points. He added seven rebounds, three assists and three steals. Ty Metz had a team-high 10 rebounds to go with six points and Charlie Kleist had 11 points and six rebounds and got the crowd roaring with a onehanded slam dunk in the first half.

After dropping the Warriors to 9-15, the Raiders got a week-long break to prepare for the WIAA Division 2 tournament, which for them starts Friday when they host eighth-seeded Menomonie (10-15) at 7 p.m. in a regional semifinal. Medford beat the Mustangs 64-41 in a non-conference regular-season meeting on Jan. 24.

If the top-seeded Raiders win, they’ll host either fifth-seeded Rice Lake (14-10) or fourth-seeded River Falls (15-9) in the regional final Saturday at 7 p.m. The winner of that one advances to the sectional semifinal round on March 9. The site of that game is yet to be determined, but has been narrowed down to either Menomonie or La Crosse Logan by the WIAA.

Medford only trailed once in Friday’s non-conference win. That was at 6-4 after the Warriors’ Cole Nelson hit the first of his team’s six made 3s in the opening half. Medford took the lead for good with a 9-0 run that included a Baumgartner 3, Kleist’s bucket, a short shot in the lane by senior Zach Rudolph and then Kleist’s breakaway dunk off a long Tanner Hraby assist that followed Metz battling a couple of Warriors to dig out a defensive rebound.

From there, every time the Raiders started to stretch their lead, the Warriors seemed to drill a 3 to keep the game close. Beckett Teske’s 3 cut a 20-11 lead to six and Brett Butalla dropped in three 3s in the latter stages of the half. Two of them sandwiched a 3 by Baumgartner and pulled the Warriors within 32-25. Tanner Hraby, who scored 20 points for the Raiders, sank a 3 of his own with 3:32 left to put Medford up by 10 before West’s Marcus MacDonald got an opening along the baseline and scored to make it 35-27 at the half.

The Warriors got within six at 39-33 on a Nelson triple four minutes into the second half and were still within eight at 45-37 when Medford started to pull away for good. Hraby hit his third trey of the game and Metz got a steal and easy layup to make it 50-37. Butalla got another 3 to cut the lead to 10. That, however, would be West’s last 3.

At 51-42, Hraby’s 3 off a skip pass from Baumgartner started the run that finally put the Warriors away. Baumgartner drilled a triple with a defender in his face and then Hraby hit a pull-up jumper to widen the lead to 59-42 with 5:33 left.

Kleist got inside for a score off a Baumgartner assist, Rudolph fed Metz for two and Baumgartner posted up inside for another easy basket. Hraby’s hoop finished off the run and put the Raiders up by 25.

Hraby made eight of 14 shots, including four of nine 3s while scoring his 20 points. Rudolph finished with four points and senior Anakin Stokes hit two firsthalf free throws and played solid defense in his 13 minutes. Senior Vincent Seidel had an assist in the win.

Butalla led West with 17 points, while Nelson had 11.

While West shot 39.1% from long range (nine of 23), the Warriors were just three of 10 after halftime with Medford doing a better job of rotating and contesting those shots. The Raiders were eight of 22 on 3s and took care of business inside the arc, making 19 of 28 shots to finish 54% overall from the field (27 of 50). Medford had 36 points in the paint compared to West’s 10. The Raiders turned the ball over just six times, while getting 14 from West and Medford outrebounded the Warriors 30-17 and limited them to just two offensive boards.