Edgar’s defense too tough; Rib Lake smothers Eagles

RIB LAKE GIRLS BASKETBALL

The Rib Lake girls basketball team hung around for about 15 minutes in the first half of Monday’s Marawood Conference crossover with Edgar, but eventually the talented Wildcats wore down the Redmen and pulled away for a 62-21 win.

Makenna Guden led the way with 19 points for the visitors, but after that it was a very balanced offensive attack with nine players getting into the scoring column. Edgar’s defense was a major factor, forcing Rib Lake into 18 turnovers and never letting the Lady Redmen get comfortable.

“Edgar has a nice team-very athletic, good shooters and they play an aggressive full court style of defense,” Rib Lake head coach Mike Wudi said. “Their style of defense sped us up and led to some poor decision making against their pressure. We still had too many turnovers and did not get enough good shots at the basket.”

The Wildcats, who sit at 7-4 in Marawood games and 10-5 overall after losing 57-55 in overtime to Marathon Tuesday, got out to early leads of 11-0 and 15-2, but for a while after that, Rib Lake (1-7, 2-7) slowed them down and tried to creep back into it.

Nellie Hopkins got her second rebound basket of the game, Lauren Pelnis scored inside as did Tia Bube and Pelnis swished a 3-pointer to create a 23-11 deficit. But Edgar came back with an 11-0 run and led 34-12 at halftime. Edgar opened the second half with a 20-2 surge and that was it for Rib Lake’s hopes of staying in contact.

Pelnis had team highs with seven points and seven rebounds and she blocked two shots. Reagan Reinhardt scored all five of her points in the second half and Hopkins finished with four points, three rebounds and two steals. Bube had three first-half points, six rebounds and a pair of blocked shots.

Molly Heiser had a second-half hoop and two rebounds.

Rib Lake made nine of 34 shots overall from the field and two of five free throws.

Reagan Borchardt had nine points

Redmen 42, Eagles 6

all eight of her points in that run, while Hopkins scored three times off steals. Pelnis got a steal and score to make it 21-2. Off the bench, Tiara Kestler scored off a Josie Scheithauer rebound and assist and Danielle Mann got an offensive putback to make it 25-2 at the half.

Rib Lake’s run continued with 12 more points to open the second half, making it 37-2. Mann got two scores off steals and added an offensive putback. Tia Bube, Emily Rodman and freshman Leah Chmielowiec scored as well before the Screaming Eagles finally ended the 32-0 run with two Jessica Renken free throws with 4:13 left.

Ten players got into the scoring col- umn for the victors, led by eight apiece from Mann, Hopkins and Heiser. Kestler scored four, Rodman and Pelnis added three each and Kamy Annala, Reinhardt, Bube and Chmielowiec scored two each.

Annala led the team with six steals. Mann had five and Hopkins and Pelnis had four each. Scheithauer led with two assists. Heiser had a team-high five rebounds, while Mann had four and Scheithauer, Rebekah Strobach, Pelnis, Hannah Schuh and Kestler all had three boards.

Renken, Kramah Shomila and Tiara Woytowich had two points apiece for Chequamegon (0-3).

for Edgar. Skylee Maneck and Amber Skrzypcak added six apiece.

The upcoming schedule has changed significantly for Rib Lake in recent days.

Tuesday’s home game with Prentice was postponed and moved to Friday, Jan. 29. Friday’s game at Auburndale has been moved to Feb. 4 and has been replaced by a trip to Stratford that originally was scheduled for Monday.

Tuesday’s non-conference home game with Northland Lutheran has been canceled and replaced with a 6:30 home start against the Gilman Pirates. The Jan. 28 home game with Phillips will now close the regular season on Saturday, Feb. 6 with a 3 p.m. start.

The Redmen found a team it could defensively harass on Friday as they dominated an inexperienced squad from Chequamegon 42-6 to earn their second win of the season.

Rib Lake committed a season-low eight turnovers and collected 28 steals. They also pulled down 33 rebounds. The steals and rebounds led to Rib Lake getting 71 shots from the field. Only 19 went down, but that was more than plenty to offset the little bit of offense Chequamegon could muster.

It was 5-2 when Rib Lake went on a 20-0 run to finish the first half. Heiser had