Blue Jays, Royals cruise past the Lady Redmen

RIB LAKE GIRLS BASKETBALL

A 15-0 first-half run gave the Athens Blue Jays plenty of cushion to work with Monday and they cruised from there to a 65-34 win over visiting Rib Lake in a Marawood North girls basketball matchup.

In a contest where both teams had struggles with the turnover bug at times, Athens was able to overcome it and dominated the scoring in the paint, either off set plays or offensive rebounding.

The Jays completed a season sweep of the Lady Redmen, who dropped to 1-6 in Marawood play and overall. Athens improved to 5-3 in Marawood games and 6-6 overall.

Junior forward McKennzie Schug was the key finisher inside for Athens, scoring 20 points on 10-of-16 shooting. Freshman Jazelle Hartwig hit seven of 10 shots from the field and scored 16 points for Athens. Sophia Coker added 10 points.

Athens jumped ahead 10-0, but Rib Lake found a little life when Nellie Hopkins got a transition score off a blocked shot by the defense and Lauren Pelnis got a bucket to make it 10-4.

But then Athens made its big run, tearing out to a 25-4 lead. Schug scored eight points in the run and Hartwig scored twice in a row off turnovers.

Rib Lake got five points off Athens turnovers. Danielle Mann who made some things happen defensively at the top of Rib Lake’s 1-3-1 zone in the first half, got a steal, hoop and harm and made the free throw. Pelnis added a steal and score to make it 27-9. Reagan Reinhardt’s score got Rib Lake within 28-11, but baskets by Schug and Sophia Coker made it 32-11 at the break. Coker’s hoop came off a scramble in the lane just before the horn sounded.

Athens scored the first seven points of the second half and eventually pushed its lead to 54-22 before Hopkins went on a six-point run for Rib Lake by knocking down three mid-range jumpers. The Redmen also got late scores from Josie Scheithauer and Emily Rodman to close things out.

Pelnis led Rib Lake in scoring with 10 points, while Hopkins finished with eight. Scheithauer scored four secondhalf points. Mann and Reinhardt scored three apiece in the loss. Rodman, Molly Heiser and Rebekah Strobach had a bucket apiece.

Heiser was the team’s leading rebounder with seven. She added an assist and a blocked shot. Strobach had four rebounds, Tia Bube and Hopkins had three apiece and Mann and Pelnis had two each. Hopkins had four steals and Reinhardt had two.

Athens had a huge 46-24 edge in rebounding and made 27 of 60 shots from the field (45%). Rib Lake was 15 of 62 (24.2%).

The Redmen hope for better things Friday when they host Chequamegon in a game that’s been pushed back a day from its originally scheduled date. The teams will play at 5:45 p.m. to start a girls-boys doubleheader between the teams. Chequamegon (0-2) is not playing a full Marawood schedule this year.

Rib Lake hosts Edgar Monday and Prentice Tuesday in Marawood play. Both of those games start at 7:15 p.m.

Assumption 55, Rib Lake 14

The combination of size inside and strong 3-point shooting outside was more than enough for Wisconsin Rapids Assumption to cruise to a 55-14 win over host Rib Lake Thursday in a Marawood Conference crossover.

The Royals put this one away early, scoring the game’s first 21 points. After a Reinhardt hoop finally got Rib Lake on the board with 9:17 left in the first half and Hopkins and Heiser each made a free throw, a 3-point spree that included two from the Royals’ Sam Nelson and one from Jessie Grundhoffer made it 35-4 RL girls drop two games

and put it well out of reach for the Lady Redmen.

It was 41-12 at halftime and the Royals outscored Rib Lake 14-2 in the second half, which included about seven minutes of running clock.

Grundhoffer at 5-10 and Emily Bohn at 6-4, made the interior of Assumption’s defense tough to attack. Rib Lake struggled most of the night handling Assumption’s full-court pressure as well, committing 32 turnovers.

Pelnis scored five first-half points to lead Rib Lake in scoring. Reinhardt had the team’s only second-half bucket and finished with four points. Hopkins added three points and Heiser and Jolee Gehrke scored one each.

Tia Bube and Pelnis each grabbed six rebounds to lead Rib Lake in that department. Pelnis had an assist.

Rib Lake was just five of 27 from the field and four of 14 from the free throw line.

Ainara Martin hit a trio of 3s and led Assumption with 15 points, while Grundhoffer added 14. Nelson chipped in with eight. Bohn had four points, four steals and four rebounds for the Royals, who improved to 5-6 overall at the time.