Raiders start the madness with a win

Medford’s 2021-22 girls basketball season started three months ago with a win in Merrill, but a 51-37 win over the Blue Jays Tuesday in a WIAA Division 2 regional opener assured that it wouldn’t quite end against Merrill.

The seventh-seeded Raiders jumped out to a 15-0 lead over the 10th-seeded visitors and held them without a field goal in the game’s first 10 minutes. Medford endured some bumpy stretches in the middle of the game, but the Raiders never really allowed Merrill to get dangerously close and ended the Blue Jays’ season at 4-20.

“Knowing it was our last game here for the seniors for sure, it was just about giving it our all, leaving nothing on the court and doing our best,” said Autumn Krause, one of seven seniors who went out winners in their final basketball game at Raider Hall.

“It’s bittersweet,” Laurissa Klapatauskas said. “I’m so glad we won. I’m glad it didn’t end here.”

The early tone was set by Medford’s zone defense, which did not allow Merrill to do anything inside and forced contested shots from the outside. Combined with solid rebounding, Medford didn’t allow a point until an Alayna Pozorski free throw with 9:04 left in the half or a field goal until Pozorski hit a 3-pointer with 8:00 left with Merrill trailing 17-1.

“They hit 3s in the second half because we got a little tired and we weren’t closing out quite as well,” Medford head coach Greg Klapatauskas said. “At first when we were holding them, they didn’t have an open look. We were closing out hard. Our defense was phenomenal.”

Brooke Rudolph got off to a fast offensive start, scoring six of Medford’s first 17 points. Hope Faude added a 3-pointer from the left corner that made it 10-0 and she assisted on a Klapatauskas cut to the hoop.

Klapatauskas led Medford with 10 points in the win, all on hard drives or cuts to the basket.

“They were overplaying a lot and the backdoor cuts were open,” she said. “My teammates were seeing me. We had some amazing passes.”

Merrill’s defensive plan was aimed at getting as much on-ball pressure as it could, and it started to work after the Blue Jays finally lifted the lid off the basket. The Raiders’ play got ragged at the end of the first half and Merrill cut their lead to 21-11 on a 3-pointer by Maddie Drew just before halftime hit.

“Coming in as a lower seed, I know that’s how we would play,” Krause said of Merrill’s scrappy defense. “That’s how we’re going to be Friday. You go in giving it you’re all hoping for the best.”

Merrill got the deficit down to single digits at 24-15 following a Brenna Steinagel score and a putback by Laney Zuelsdorff, but that was as close as Merrill got in the second half.

Klapatauskas finished a drive, Rudolph lined drive a jumper home and then her steal led to a rebound bucket by Rynn Ruesch. Klapatauskas scored again on another drive to open up a 32-15 lead but then left the game after hitting her head on the floor following a collision on the defensive end.

“We were playing at our pace,” she said. “We were playing great defense. We were talking a bunch and we didn’t let the press frazzle us.”

The lead hit 18 at 42-24 on an easy putback for Katie Brehm and reaching its high point at 19 at 47-28 when Krause knocked down Medford’s second triple of the night with 3:33 left.

Greg Klapatauskas said Medford’s offensive decision making was solid once the Raiders settled down again in the second half.

“I thought we did OK with (their pressure) for the most part,” he said. “There were a few mistakes here and there. Some miscommunication things and stuff. It felt like the Pines game (Feb. 11) where we were really looking to find the open player. Hopefully we follow it up with a good game Friday.

“With breaking the press, the girls kinda just figured it out,” Klapatauskas added. “It wasn’t anything we drew up. It was just stick around, be available, if a girl leaves you get to a spot where you can catch the ball. We started to trust that someone was going to be there and they were. The couple of times we struggled was when we weren’t in the right spots.”

Rudolph ended a solid night with nine points, Faude scored eight key points off the bench for Medford, while Krause scored seven and Ruesch and Breanna Kraemer both added six. Brehm scored three and Sophie Brost gave Medford some nice minutes and scored on a nice left-handed move on the block to give the Raiders a 36-21 lead at the time.

Steinagel led Merrill with 10 points, while Zuelsdorff and Mia Ott scored eight apiece.

The win sends Medford to second-seeded Lakeland (16-8) on Friday for a 7 p.m. regional semifinal. The Great Northern Conference runner-up went 10-2 in league play and swept Medford during the regular season with the last meeting being a 74-32 blowout in Minocqua Feb. 3. The Raiders know they go in as underdogs, but plan to give it their best shot and see what happens.

“We’ll have to take care of the ball and close out on their shooters,” Greg Klapatauskas said. Friday’s winner will take on either sixth-seeded Ashland (11-13) or thirdseeded Rhinelander (15-9) in the regional final Saturday night.

Mosinee 62, Medford 33

On Friday, GNC champion Mosinee (23-1) completed a perfect 12-0 run through league play with a 62-33 win over the visiting Raiders.

Medford kept it close early. The Raiders’ zone defense got Mosinee forcing a lot of outside shots, Medford was in the bonus early and got to the free throw line, Krause got a 3-pointer to roll in and Hope Faude stuck back an offensive rebound as the Raiders hung within 11-10. A 15-foot jumper by Rudolph and a Ruesch free throw made it 15-13 with 5:54 left in the first half.

But that’s when it got away as Mosinee ended the half on a 13-0 run and started the second half with a 7-2 spurt to go up by 20 at 35-15 and the Indians steadily built on their lead from there.

Mosinee took 72 shots from the field and made 25, while Medford took just 34, making 11. The Raiders’ scoring chances were reduced due to 37 turnovers, which led to 32 points for the Indians. The teams were dead even in rebounding at 37-37 and Medford had an 11-2 advantage in second-chance points.

Mosinee hit eight of 32 3-point shots compared to Medford’s two of eight.

The Raiders got 11 points and six rebounds from Ruesch. Krause had both of Medford’s 3-point hits to finish with six points and added two rebounds. Kraemer scored six points off cuts in the lane and nice assists from teammates in the second half and she grabbed three boards. Brehm made three of four free throws and had four rebounds. Brost had three late points and three boards. Rudolph finished with a bucket and three boards. Faude had two points, five rebounds and two assists. Laurissa Klapatauskas had five rebounds and three steals before fouling out.

Kate Fitzgerald and Lexi Freiboth had big nights for Mosinee with 16 points each. Freiboth had six assists, six steals and five rebounds. Fitzgerald had seven rebounds, two assists and two steals.

Medford finished 6-6 in conference play, good for a fourth-place finish.