Everest holds off last Medford rally; Tigers take over after half

MEDFORD GIRLS BASKETBALL

The Medford Raiders went from being up 10 in the first half to down 10 in the second half to being tied late, but they couldn’t quite swing the pendulum fully back in their favor in a 58-55 non-conference loss at D.C. Everest Monday.

Trailing 49-39 with eight minutes to go, the Raiders stormed back to tie it at 52-52 on a pull-up jumper by Marissa Fronk with 4:35 left. But Everest’s Hanna Stuedemann answered with a tough shot in the lane. After both teams had some empty possessions, the Evergreens’ Kiara Hammond scored inside and was fouled with 2:08 left to give the home team a four-point lead.

Hammond missed the free throw and the Raiders got a basket from Laurissa Klapatauskas with 1:38 to go. The Raiders got the ball back and a go-ahead 3-point try by Autumn Krause bounced off the rim with 50 seconds to go. A potential offensive foul on Stuedemann near midcourt was instead called a reach-in foul on Fronk and the Everest senior knocked down both bonus free throws with 26.3 seconds left to put the Evergreens in front 58-54.

Rynn Ruesch made one of two free throws with 20.4 seconds left to make it a one-possession game and the Raiders got their chance to tie after Hammond missed a bonus free throw with 18.3 seconds left. Everest, though, didn’t allow anything easy and Bryn Fronk’s long straight-on 3-point attempt hit the back iron with two seconds left.

The loss was Medford’s sixth in its last eight games and the Raiders fell to 9-8 overall. But the performance, according to head coach Greg Klapatauskas was better than the previous one in a loss at Marshfield. In that game, Medford’s troubles centered on the defensive end. After this one, he said the tweaks will come on offense where he said he doesn’t want the Raiders to stop attacking in transition or while breaking presses and situations like that. But more patience is needed in half-court offensive sets.

“We had opportunities to win, we just didn’t take advantage of them,” he said. “We just have to be a little more patient on offense. I went through the last five games and when we pass the ball fewer than five times when we’re in the half-court offense, we’re either making a basket or getting fouled about 25% of the time. When we’re passing five to 10 times, we’re closer to 60%.

“Overall we played better,” Klapatauskas added. “We just have to keep doing the little things. I think we were more under control, we took care of the ball. We only had 13 turnovers, so that right there is a much better stat.”

Medford forced 20 Evergreen turnovers and scored 21 points off of them. The Raiders took 10 more shots from the field and hit 16 of 24 free throws compared to seven of 17 for Everest. Ultimately, the shots Evergreens got were a little too good as they were 15 of 24 in the paint and 18 of 28 overall from two-point range and shot 54.8% overall from the field. The Raiders were 16 of 52, including seven of 26 from long range.

Things clicked early on both ends of the floor. Krause hit a pair of 3s for an 8-5 lead, Bryn Fronk got a steal and score to make it 10-6 and Klapatauskas capped a perfect press break by getting a hoop and harm off a Ruesch assist to make it 13-8. Klapatauskas got another three-point play off her steal and Martha Miller took off with a loose ball and scored to put Medford up 18-8 seven minutes into the game.

But just as quickly as they went up by 10, the Raiders found themselves trailing 21-20 after a 13-2 Everest run that included two 3s by Stuedemann and one by Riley Zuleger. The Raiders trailed 26-21 before free throws by Ruesch, a Krause 3 and trey from Marissa Fronk at the buzzer put Medford up 29-28.

Medford took a 37-36 lead on two Katie Brehm free throws with 13:26 left when Everest took off on a 13-2 run. The Raiders clawed back into it, starting with a trey from Krause, three points from Brehm and free throws by Ruesch.

Krause led Medford with 14 points, four rebounds and three steals. Ruesch added 11 points and eight rebounds while making nine of 13 free throws. Klapatauskas scored eight points and had six rebounds. Bryn Fronk scored eight points, including back-to-back 3s early in the second half.

Marissa Fronk, back after missing nearly two full games with an ankle injury, scored seven points and had six assists. Miller had two points and two steals.

Hammond led three Evergreens with 19 points and four assists. Stuedemann had 12 points, nine boards and five assists for Everest (8-7), who is coached by Rib Lake native Matt Bullis.

After leaning on zone defenses for a long stretch of the season, the Raiders went back to man-to-man defense for most of Monday’s game.

“Our zone looked a little better, but I think it depends on the team we’re playing,” Klapatauskas said. “We were more athletic than they were so playing man helped us use our athleticism more. We’ll keep switching back and forth.”

Tigers 65, Raiders 42

Much like their game at Eau Claire Memorial two nights earlier, the Raiders hung tough at Marshfield through about 16 minutes Thursday, but the Tigers created some distance in the last two minutes of the half and then pulled away in the second half of their 65-42 win.

Playing without Marissa Fronk, the Raiders put together a solid first half offensively, but just about every time they hit a shot or two, Marshfield came back with a big 3-point bucket. Most of those were scored by 5-8 senior guard Maddy Michaelis, who poured in 29 points, 18 of which came in the first half. She made six of 10 3-point tries with four of those triples coming in the first half.

“We did some good things,” Greg Klapatauskas said. “We’re not playing good team defense right now and that’s something we’re going to try to emphasize.”

Michaelis hit two early triples to give the Tigers an 8-5 lead. Baskets by Ruesch and Sophie Brost pulled the Raiders within 10-9, but Marshfield countered with an 8-0 spurt that included a couple of transition baskets, two free throws by forward Abby Ongna and score in the post from Michaelis.

Brehm hit a 3-pointer from the right corner and Bryn Fronk scored off a steal to get Medford within 18-14. Brianna Varsho hit a trey and Ongna scored off a turnover to put the Tigers back up by nine.

Krause swished back-to-back 3s for Medford to get it back to a one-possession game at 23-20. But that was the last time the Raiders were that close.

Michaelis hit a right-corner 3 off an inbound play, Ongna scored again and Michaelis hit another 3-pointer to push Marshfield’s lead to 31-20. The Tigers settled for a 33-24 halftime lead. Krause’s fourth and final 3-pointer got Medford within 35-27, but Michaelis responded with another 3, Quincy Lang scored inside and the Raiders never got the lead under double digits again.

Krause had 12 points and eight rebounds, hitting four of seven shots from 3-point range. Brost scored a season-high eight points with a couple of nice drives in the lane.

“Autumn really showed up as a leader on the floor,” Klapatauskas said. “Sophie has been playing. We just need her to be a touch more aggressive, but that will come.”

Laurissa Klapatauskas added eight points as well and hit all four of her free throws. Ruesch scored five points, Bryn Fronk scored four, Brehm finished with three and Miller added a second-half bucket.

Brost and Klapatauskas had four rebounds each. Krause and Brehm both had a pair of assists. Bryn Fronk had five steals, scoring directly off two.

The Raiders shot a respectable 41.7% from the field (15 of 36), but 22 turnovers and just three offensive rebounds limited their scoring chances.

Rynn Ruesch