Raiders rally late, but fall short 71-69

MEDFORD BOYS BASKETBALL

NOT QUITE ENOUGH

The Medford Raiders got beat up in the first half by a team doing Medford kinds of things in Tuesday’s boys basketball season opener, yet they almost dug their way out of it in the second half.

Down 47-30 at one point early in the second half, Medford rallied to tie the game twice, but they never quite got over the hump, falling 71-69 to visiting Chippewa Falls on Christian Crumbaker’s tie-breaking free throws with 10.3 seconds left. The Raiders were 27 of 32 from the free throw line, a key reason why they got back into the game, but two of the misses came off the hands of Logan Baumgartner with 3.6 seconds left –– one of them intentionally –– and the hopes of tying the game one more time were dashed.

As head coach Ryan Brown saw it, the game was decided in the first half, when Chippewa Falls went on a 22-6 tear to break a 19-19 tie and did it with hustle on the offensive boards and deadly 3-point shooting, particularly from senior Mason Monarski, who hit five of his eight 3-pointers in the first half on his way to a game-high 27 points.

“The first half wasn’t great,” Brown said. “They hit eight 3s in the first half, then they hit three in the second half. Our goal is usually six or less for the game. They were hot. But a lot of those 3s came off of second-chance points. I thought they were more physical and aggressive hitting the boards and we just need to do a better job of finding our check and boxing out strong and going and getting the ball.

“We had our hands on some balls,” he said. “They just wanted it more. Going up with two hands versus one. Going and getting the ball. That’s usually what we do well with this group. When we played throughout the summer and when we played in the scrimmage, that’s where we killed teams was on the offensive boards. To see another team to do that against us just gives us something we have to work on.”

The Cardinals finished the game with 23 second-chance points and 18 offensive rebounds as they held an overall advantage of 46-38 in rebounding.

Medford got back in the game behind 23 points from Baumgartner, who was questionable coming into the day due to illness, 17 points from Tanner Hraby, 14 of which came after halftime and 19 points combined from senior forwards Charlie Kleist and Ty Metz, who both made some things happen in the paint while going up against a good-sized squad from Chi-Hi.

Medford led for much of the first 10 minutes with last time being 17-16 on two Kleist free throws with 7:31 left in the half. Jackson Gugel hit a 3 for the Cardinals, which was answered by a bucket from Raider senior Zach Rudolph. Then the Cardinals went on their tear, ignited by a four-point play from Monarski. He hit two more 3s, one of which came off an offensive rebound, to open up a 10-point lead and Jackson Tomczak added another long ball to help the Cardinals build a 41-25 lead before Baumgartner ran out the clock and hit a long, straight-on 3-pointer with three seconds left to make it a 41-28 game at the break.

In the half, Chippewa Fall shot 47.1% from the field (16 of 34), including eight of 21 from deep, while Medford shot just 29.4% overall (10 of 34, including three of 17 from long range. For the game, Medford shot just 29.5% from the field (18 of 61).

”We got some good shots that went in and out,” Brown said. “I thought we started off the game OK. We really kept them out of the paint. We forced some tough contested shots. We took care of the boards early in the first four or five minutes. But we weren’t really getting in a rhythm on offense. We got some good shots, but the game just stayed close until they got those offensive rebounds and 3s at the end of the half. But we shot some bad shots too. There were some quick shots from some really good shooters but when you’re not shooting as well, maybe had some nerves with the first game, you need to just slow down. Our offense is pretty good when we run it quickly and I thought that’s what we did a better job of in the second half.”

Metz and Kleist each got baskets inside early to get the Raiders into an offensive flow in the second half. Baumgartner and Hraby hit 3s to cut the deficit to 51-41, but the Cardinals got a 3-point play from Tomczak and free throws from Gugel to go back up by 15 with 10:21 to go. That’s when Medford made its big move.

Metz started it with a three-point play. He finished the game with nine points. Hraby then knocked down four straight free throws after drawing a foul on a drive to the rim and a technical foul was called on Tomczak. Baumgartner nailed a 3 to bring Medford within 56-51.

Chi-Hi went back up by 10, but Kleist, who scored 13 points, backed down a defender in the post and scored and that was followed by two Rudolph free throws with 5:44 left that made it 62-56. Metz put back a Kleist miss to cut the lead to four, but Crumbaker hit a huge 3 with 4:56 to go for a 65-58 Chi-Hi lead. Hraby hit five straight free throws in a 19-second span to cut the lead to two. Baumgartner tied it with two free throws at the 3:47 mark, but that was quickly answered with two buckets from Cardinal Kansas Smith.

Rudolph’s free throws with 2:13 left and Hraby’s free throws with 17.4 seconds left after a Cardinal turnover tied it again at 69-69, but a tough foul call on Rudolph, his fifth of the game, at the top of the key sent Crumbaker to the line and he calmly buried the free throws that ultimately won it for the visitors.

Rudolph scored six points for Medford and Charlie Gierl hit a free throw in the second half comeback. Metz was a point shy of a double-double as he led Medford with 13 rebounds. Kleist was a rebound short of a double-double, pulling down nine, plus he had three assists. Metz had three steals. Rudolph had five rebounds and two steals. Gierl had three rebounds and two assists.

“Logan was sicker than sick,” Brown said of his team’s leader. “We didn’t think he was going to play today. He’d been home with a fever the last two days. That broke today. He’s usually kind of our voice like Joe (Sullivan) was kind of our voice and our heart last year. That’s what Logan is this year and he could barely talk. He really gritted through that. I didn’t know if he was going to play and if he did I was hoping that I’d be able to rotate him a lot. But because of foul trouble and needing guys to rebound, we needed him in there. To do some of the things he did tonight and hit some of the shots he made, I can’t give him enough credit. He was exhausted by the end of it.”

Tomczak, a 6-7 senior, had 18 points for Chippewa Falls but did not return to the game after picking up the technical foul with 9:52 left.

“We didn’t have a great scouting report because we didn’t have any film, but we knew Monarski was their guy,” Brown said. “We knew how he could shoot it. We looked at some of the film last year with him and we just didn’t do a good job of finding him. We did way better in the second half. He hit five 3s in the first half, then we held him to one in the second. We’re better than what we showed today. They hit 11 3s and I don’t know when we’ve ever given up 11 3s. We usually run guys off the line better.”

Medford opens Great Northern Conference play Friday when it hosts Lakeland at 7:15 p.m. The Raiders get a big test Saturday when they head to Onalaska for a 6:30 p.m. tip against the Hilltoppers and then it’s off to New Richmond on Tuesday for a battle with the Tigers in non-conference play.

Ty Metz makes a move in the post during Tuesday’s second half.MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS