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Rematch with Rice Lake gets sectional play started Thursday

Rematch with Rice Lake gets sectional play started Thursday Rematch with Rice Lake gets sectional play started Thursday

WIAA DIV. 2 SECTIONAL PREVIEW

#1 Onalaska, Henrichs-led Altoona on the other side

Familiarity was a theme for the Medford Raiders after they were placed in a revised WIAA Division 2 boys basketball regional bracket last month that included three Great Northern Conference rivals and a Merrill team the Raiders had seen in early January.

The geographical area widens for sectional play, but familiarity remains a theme, especially among the four head coaches that have teams still vying for a state berth out of the revised sectional bracket.

The second-seeded Medford Raiders (24-2) host third-seeded Rice Lake (9-12) in one of the 7 p.m. sectional semifinals tonight, Thursday, while top-seeded and top-ranked Onalaska (16-0) hosts fourthseeded Altoona (16-7). The winners meet Saturday for the sectional championship on the higher-seeded team’s home floor at a time to be determined.

The Raiders have already beaten Rice Lake and Altoona this season and head coach Ryan Brown has friendships with all three of the other head coaches. Altoona’s head coach is 2002 Medford graduate Paul Henrichs, who now stands as the third-leading scorer in school history after being passed this year by Raider senior Peyton Kuhn.

“Coach (Craig) Kowal at Onalaska I’ve talked to a number of times over the years,” Brown said. “He knew one of my college roommates pretty good who’s the head coach at La Crescent, Minn. Coach Henrichs, obviously with the Medford ties we’ve talked quite a bit. With him being at Altoona, where I’m from, I’ve built a pretty good friendship with him, just talking basketball.”

Rice Lake head coach Kevin Orr is also one of Brown’s closest coaching confidants. The teams will meet for the fourth time in the past two seasons tonight. Brown and his Raiders have had the upper hand recently, winning the last three meetings including a 73-60 decision on Dec. 14.

“With coach Orr, it’s the exact same thing,” Brown said. “The first time we played them I just knew that we had similar styles. We came from similar interests and knowing similar coaches. It’s exciting to have that opportunity to play them again. I know they’re going to be well-prepared, well-coached. They’re going to play hard. It’s our job to match and exceed that and hopefully execute better than they do.”

While Onalaska and Medford were slam dunks as the top two seeds in the sectional, Brown said the voting Sunday to determine where Rice Lake and Altoona was difficult. Altoona has the better record and plays in a solid smallschool conference, the Western Cloverbelt, while Rice Lake has improved throughout the season playing in what most observers would consider northern Wisconsin’s toughest boys basketball league, the Big Rivers Conference.

In tonight’s matchup, Brown said Rice Lake’s 3-point shooting will be one of the key things to watch. Tyler Orr, a 5-11 sophomore guard, has emerged as the Warriors’ leading scorer, pouring in 17.4 points per game according to statistics posted by WisSports.net. Nick Schlampp, a left-handed shooting 5-9 senior guard, is averaging just under 12 points a game. Both have hit more than 60 3-pointers this year and shoot them with a success rate of nearly 40%.

“I would say they rely a little more on the 3 than us,” Brown said. “They love to screen and curl and then pop back for open 3s, especially (Orr’s) son. Nick Schlampp is a lefty. Those two do a lot of their 3-point shooting. They’ve got good athletes. They play fast and hard. The overall style is very similar to ours.”

Brown said the casual observer may not even notice any differences in the ways the two teams run their five-out motion offenses. Defensively there may be more differences between the squads.

“Defensively they’re a pressure team just like us,” Brown said. “In the past they were a run-and-jump team. In the past, we’ve been more run-and-jump. We pick up more full-court man now and they run a little more 1-2-2 now. It’s kind of like what we run here and there, but it’s more of a full-court trapping version.”

In the Dec. 14 meeting, Medford jumped out to a quick 20-5 lead and led by as much as 24 in the first half before settling for a 43-24 halftime lead. Rice Lake’s 3-point prowess showed in the second half and the Warriors made it interesting, getting within 55-44 with 10 minutes left. Logan Baumgartner’s 3-pointer stopped their run and started another one for Medford that put the game away. Orr had 21 points in that game, including five-of-eight shooting from long range. Schlampp and senior Nolan Rowe made three 3-pointers apiece for nine points.

At the time, Rice Lake was 1-2 and Medford was 5-0. Medford’s only losses have come to Rice Lake’s conference rivals Chippewa Falls and River Falls.

“Rice Lake beat Eau Claire Memorial this year who’s a really good team,” Brown said. “They beat Menomonie (who Medford beat 59-44). They lost to Chippewa by nine. You can just see throughout the year just based on their scores and some of the film, that they’re getting better all the time. We talk about that too all year about not plateauing, just continue to refine the little things and improve, so when the other teams raise their game, so does ours.

“When you play a Big Rivers schedule all year long –– and it’s the same reason why we play as many tough teams as we can –– you’re going to improve,” Brown added. “You’re going to have to raise your game. You’re going to have to play more physical. You’re going to have to play faster. Throughout a season, that leads to becoming a better basketball team.”

The other side

Henrichs’ Railroaders will be viewed by most as a heavy underdog tonight at Onalaska.

The Hilltoppers went 6-0 in the Mississippi Valley Conference, only getting in half the games they normally would. They did not get to play league rival La Crosse Central, who also went 6-0 and has overshadowed the Hilltoppers the past few years in league and WIAA Division tournament play. Central got bumped to Division 1 when the brackets were altered in January.

Including Saturday’s 65-47 regional final win, Onalaska beat Tomah three times, a team Medford also beat in December, handled Chippewa Falls 65-42 on Jan. 12, the night after the Cardinals beat Medford 57-47, and, curiously, got their closest scare from the Menomonie team that Medford and Rice Lake have both beaten. Onalaska edged the Mustangs 50-47 on Jan. 26.

“Onalaska is just really good,” Brown said. “Coach Kowal does a great job with them. They’re always well-coached. They run a really, really good man-toman defense. They have a 6-10 kid, Gavin McGrath, that can kinda sit under the basket and protect the rim. But he also has the ability to come out and guard. They have another 6-7 player (Victor Desmond) that’s really a heck of an athlete that can really defend. Their guards are really good. They’re really skilled and long, but they also execute really well defensively and offensively.

“They’re the mountain in the room.”

Medford and Onalaska have met twice in sectional play in the past 30 years, both times in Stevens Point in the semifinal round. Onalaska won 80-47 in 1992 and 60-44 in 2000.

Medford beat Altoona 63-51 on Jan. 30 while playing without sophomore standout Logan Baumgartner. However, Brown noted the Railroaders have been playing all year without 2019-20 Western Cloverbelt Player of the Year Keshawn Harris due to injury.

“Coach Henrichs does a great job with Altoona,” Brown said. “They attack and kick a lot. They shoot the ball well. They’re quick, they’re fast. I think they’re pretty experienced. They’ve dealt with some adversity throughout the year. They lost their starting point guard at the end of the summer.”

A sectional final appearance would be Medford’s first since 1983 when the 13-9 Raiders made an upset run through the Class A bracket, beating Chippewa Falls, Eau Claire Memorial and Hudson before losing 35-32 to Wisconsin Rapids.

This year, with the team Medford has and with the mid-season changes in assignments eliminating potential road blocks like La Crosse Central, River Falls and Menomonie and allowing the Raiders to start in more familiar territory in regional play, Brown said it was an opportunity for a deep run the Raiders could not let get away.

“It’s never easy,” he said moments after the team’s 64-54 regional final win over Rhinelander. “I love these kids so Preview

much I just wanted for them to get here. I know the work they’ve put into it. We’ve been given this opportunity where they brought us back to our old side (of the bracket). I don’t think it’s going to stay that way, so we knew we had to take advantage of that. I wish we’d stay here, but the reality is next year we’ll probably be back in with Central and Onalaska. There was a lot of pressure I felt, just as a staff, that we wanted to get these kids here. So I’m just really proud of them. They’re regional champs and they can remember that forever.”

The sectional appearance is Medford’s first since the 2016-17 season and just its fourth in the past 21 years with 2007-08 and 1999-2000 being the others. The Raiders won three straight regional titles from 1992-94 but lost sectional semifinals to Onalaska, Holmen and Adams-Friendship. Four years ago, the Raiders lost 51-49 to Wausau East in a sectional semifinal heartbreaker. The 2007-08 team lost its semifinal with Adams-Friendship.


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