defensively after their challenging fourgame ….

defensively after their challenging fourgame stretch to start the year. He said they got closer to locking in on Friday.

“About five minutes into the game, I thought we really locked in for the rest of the half,” Brown said. “We only gave up the 21 points, it was a fast-paced game, so there was a lot of possessions for them to just score the 21. Second half I loved how we came out in the first five or six minutes. We wanted to come out and trap a little bit. We didn’t want to relax.”

“We’ve been working on rotation in practice a lot, just smashing down harder, getting all the way down to the level of the ball,” Hraby said. “I think it showed a little bit tonight, but I think we still have a ways to go. I think we’re getting there. We’re going in the right direction.”

Medford led by as many as 46 in the second half, which allowed Medford to go deeper into the bench for the first time. Steliga finished with 10 points and three assists, Seidel had three rebounds and two assists to go with two points, Stokes had three rebounds and an assist and Hayden Koester hit a late 3.

“We’ve played really physical, big teams,” Brown said. “We told them that, with Charlie (Gierl) sick, we need to find a couple of guys. We felt we knew we’d be more skilled than Antigo, but we knew they were big and strong. It was a real opportunity for them to show they can get in there. With Vincent, Anakin and Nick, they really went in there and fought for everything, whether it was on defense or every rebound. That’s good.”

Baumgartner led all scorers with 27 points and added four steals, three rebounds and two assists. Rudolph had nine points and two assists. Kleist finished with 14 points, three assists and two rebounds. Metz had four points and three rebounds.

Antigo was led by its big guys in the post, Ty Kohler and Mason Gray, who had 14 and nine points.