Early success doesn’t hold in 63-26 loss
RIB LAKE GIRLS BASKETBALL
Rib Lake’s girls basketball team started Friday’s game at Marathon running some of their best offense of the young season, but the machine didn’t stay running long enough and the host Red Raiders took off with a 63-26 win.
Seven minutes in, the Lady Redmen were hanging in there, trailing by just one point at 15-14. But, the shots stopped falling, Marathon got some turnovers and started running, led by their solid senior guard Ashley Phakitthong, and the Redmen scored just 12 more points the rest of the way to fall to 1-4 in Marawood Conference play and 2-4 overall.
Josie Scheithauer and Avery Niemi highlighted the early offense for Rib Lake. Niemi’s 3-pointer on Rib Lake’s first possession gave the team its only lead of the game at 3-2. Scheithauer stopped a 6-0 Marathon run with a layup and Kamryn Annala worked the baseline, got open and Addison Gumz found her for a layup that made it 11-7. Scheithauer got a 3-point shot to roll in and added two free throws moments later, while Niemi grabbed a defensive rebound, took it up the court and hit a pullup jumper to make it a one-point game at the 11-minute mark.
But that’s where the game turned with a 19-2 run by the Red Raiders that included nine points from Phakitthong, four from Kali Prihoda and four from Emma Love. Rib Lake’s Madison Grzanna finally ended the run with a 3-pointer with 42 seconds left, but now down 34-19, the damage was done.
Grzanna started the second half with an offensive stickback and Scheithauer hit one of two free throws to make it 36-22, but the Redmen were outscored 27-4 the rest of the way and went over 14 minutes without a field goal before Scheithauer split a couple of defenders for a lay-in with 2:45 left. She led the Redmen with 12 points. Niemi and Grzanna had five apiece and Annala and Kiana Dallmann chipped in with two points each.
Phakitthong led all scorers with 19 points and Prihoda added 17 as Marathon improved to 3-4, including a 2-3 Marawood mark. Hannah Baldeshwiler added 10 points, including a couple of 3s.
The Lady Redmen head to Owen-Withee Friday for a non-conference date with the Blackhawks that tips at 7:15 p.m. Rib Lake will open a varsity doubleheader at Abbotsford Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. before closing out the pre-holiday portion of their schedule by hosting Pittsville in non-conference play Dec. 22.
