Defense carries Raiders to two holiday wins
MEDFORD GIRLS BASKETBALL
The Medford Raiders are hoping to carry some momentum into the 2023 portion of their girls basketball schedule after ending 2022 with a successful showing in the first Denny Laramy Holiday Classic hosted in Chippewa Falls by McDonell Catholic Central.
The Raiders finished the two-day event Thursday with a 53-27 win over the Cumberland Beavers, putting 10 girls into the scoring column led by Bryn Fronk’s 17 points.
The offense in that game was a welcome sight after Medford won a defensive slugfest over Luck the day before 29-11.
The wins give Medford a three-game winning streak and a 3-4 record heading into the meat of their schedule. Several postponements have led to a sporadic start to the schedule, but things will pick up quickly for the Raiders in the upcoming weeks.
Against Cumberland, Medford went up against a zone defense for the second straight day, but things went much better against the Beavers’ 2-3. The Raiders moved the ball well and, while they didn’t bust the zone from the outside, they found gaps that produced mid-range shots or shots at the rim and they converted enough of them to lead from start to finish.
“We’ve struggled against zones,” head coach Chad Fronk said. “But I think the kids just did a better job in the second game of getting themselves into better positions to find open shots than we did in the first game. We didn’t shoot well in the first game and it’s hard to beat a zone when that happens. The good thing is we padded our rebounding stats.”
Toryn Rau scored twice around a Bryn Fronk 3-pointer for a quick 7-0 lead. Rachel Wesle gave the Raiders an offensive lift off the bench, hitting a pair of short shots to open up a 15-4 lead, then Fronk scored off a backcourt steal, Aliyah Pilgrim hit a pullup jumper and Brooke Rudolph hit a short jumper off an inbound play for a 21-4 lead with 4:30 left in the half.
Medford went cold for a stretch and Cumberland put together its best run of the night, pulling within 23-13 by halftime, aided by a late 3-pointer from Macy Beecroft. The Beavers got buckets from Orion Thompson and Alora Garibaldi to get within 23-17 early in the second half. Medford’s lead eventually shrunk to 25-20 when the Raiders clamped down defensively and got clicking again on offense.
Fronk scored twice, once off a Rudolph assist and once off a steal to push the lead to 30-20. Rau scored four points, Rudolph added a hoop and Breanna Kraemer scored inside to open up a 38-22 lead with under eight minutes to play. Fronk drove through Cumberland’s defense for a hoop and harm, though she missed the free throw, and Kraemer’s steal to a Fronk basket with a Rau assist for a 42-23 lead. The lead got over 20 with Fronk’s score off a steal that made it 46-25. Reserves did most of the scoring after that with Ella Daniels hitting two of four free throws, Bailey Eloranta making one of two and Jolie Steliga scoring off a steal with 12.8 seconds to go.
Rau finished with eight points, Kraemer and Rudolph scored six apiece, Pilgrim scored five, Wesle had four points and Madison Clarkson added two.
Beecroft led Cumberland, who fell to 1-7, with 11 points.
“Our defense is getting better,” coach Fronk said. “The girls are starting to figure it out. We’re getting a little better with our positioning and figuring where they’re supposed to be. The girls are still learning how a man-to-man defense is supposed to be played. The girls are playing hard. We’re not quite there yet and still figuring some things out.”
Medford 29, Luck 11
In their first post-Christmas games, offense was extremely hard for both teams to find Wednesday in Medford’s 29-11 win over the Luck Cardinals.
Medford could not get anything to fall from the outside and bust Luck’s 1-31 zone, while the Raiders’ man-to-man didn’t allow many good looks or secondshot opportunities for the Cardinals, who sat at 1-6 after losing to McDonell on Thursday.
Again, the Raiders led wire to wire, but their initial lead was just 5-0, with four of those points by Rudolph for several minutes. Luck got its first basket nearly six minutes into the game and got within 7-4 at the 7:50 mark on a Daisy Roehm jumper, but the Raiders held the Cardinals without a field goal for the rest of the half and extended their lead ever so slightly, getting a Rau steal and score and a three-point play from Kraemer to lead 12-5 at the half.
Stella Johansen scored off a Medford turnover to start the second half, but then Medford locked Luck down for about nine minutes and put the game away with 12 consecutive points. Rudolph started the run by getting a 3 to roll in. Kraemer scored inside, Pilgrim hit the offensive glass and was rewarded with a hoop, Rylee Hraby drilled a 3-ball and Fronk scored off a Wesle kickout with 7:40 left to make it 24-7 and put the game out of reach.
Rudolph scored nine points to lead Medford in the win. Kraemer scored five and Fronk ended up with five after hitting a late 3. Rau and Hraby scored three points each, and Pilgrim and Daniels each had a bucket.
Johansen scored six points to account for more than half of Luck’s offensive output.
Fronk said the lack of offense really just came down to shooting, which he and assistant Keith Wicks think will improve as the girls gain confidence.
“After that game, the McDonell coach talked to us and the girls and even he said we did the right things to beat the zone,” Fronk said. “We just needed to make shots.”
Getting busy
Medford had yet another postponement Tuesday with icy weather leading to its game at Rhinelander being moved to Jan. 31. That, in turn, will affect Medford’s originally-scheduled game with Onalaska that night.
The pace should start picking up Friday when Medford hosts GNC foe Northland Pines for Senior Night at 7:15 p.m. On Saturday, the Raiders will host a strong New London squad at 6:30 p.m., making up a Dec. 22 postponement.
Then it’s off to Mosinee on Tuesday. The Indians are currently 4-1 in GNC play and leading the race for second place behind Lakeland, who is unbeaten in conference games.
While it’s been hard to get into much of a rhythm with the light schedule so far, Fronk said that will come in the upcoming weeks and he’s pleased that the girls have played and practiced with a positive attitude in this first year under his leadership.
“We’re a much better team now than we were in the first two games,” he said. “The kids have gotten better since the start of the season. We’re still learning, but we are a little different team now and I think we can compete with teams better now, even with the good teams in the conference. We’ll see how it goes.”
Bryn Fronk
