Raiders’ winning ways continue against Hodags and Robins

MEDFORD BOYS BASKETBALL

The first half wasn’t bad, but when a couple little things got fixed and more shots fell in the second half Monday, the Medford Raiders left Rhinelander in their dust in a 73-40 runaway at Raider Hall.

After the first meeting in eight days between the teams, Medford is 8-0 in the Great Northern Conference, a game ahead of 7-1 Northland Pines. This was the team’s seventh straight win and 13th win in its last 14 outings and puts the Raiders at 14-3 overall heading into a big stretch of three games in five days, including back-to-back home games Friday and Saturday.

The Raiders blew Monday’s game open with a 21-0 run that started with Charlie Kleist’s 3-pointer from the left corner off a Tanner Hraby kickout with two seconds left in the first half and continued into the first 11 minutes of the second half. Medford turned a competitive 34-27 game into a 55-27 rout and 3s from Nick Steliga and Logan Baumgartner made it 61-28 before Rhinelander finally hit its first field goal of the half with 7:28 to go.

Head coach Ryan Brown said the big second half simply came down to minor defensive fixes and being able to turn that defense into offense, something the Raiders have done well all year long while averaging 72.4 points per game.

“I thought defensively we kept the ball on the side and we did a really good job of communicating through screens,” Brown said. “If Will Gretzinger or Kyle Brown (Rhinelander’s top shooters) did get a shot they were tough and contested. We did a good job pretty much all night of forcing them to shoot twos, but we were just a little more disciplined in the second half. I thought especially in the middle of the first half we were kind of running out on non-shooters and jumping and allowing a lot of paint touches off of shot fakes. It was just about knowing the scouting report, knowing who we have to constantly find and switch too. We did some natural switches and forced tough shots. Then you need the other team to miss and when they did, we did a good job of holding them to one shot and then trying to go the other way with the ball.”

When they went the other way, the Raiders scored 14 field goals off 12 assists in the second half beating the Hodags both in solid half-court possessions and in transition, the highlight of which was a behind-the-back dribble, then behindthe- back pass from Baumgartner to Charlie Gierl for a layup that made it 50-27. That was the third straight score by Gierl off Baumgartner assists with the others being a 3-pointer off a baseline pass and another transition score. Gierl scored all 11 of his points in the second half.

“It’s hard for defenses to transition back, so we really wanted to make that emphasis,” Brown said. “I thought we moved the ball ahead and got great shots. Then it was just recognizing when the shots aren’t falling, then let’s change channels and run our stuff until we get that touch in the post and play inside out. I thought we did a better job of that in the second half too.”

Hraby led a balanced attack with 15 points, including three of Medford’s 10 3-pointers. He had four assists, three steals and three rebounds. Baumgartner scored 14 points, had six assists and added seven rebounds. Kleist had 12 points and seven rebounds. His 3-pointer seemingly killed any momentum Rhinelander had built in the first half when it kept countering every Medford run, mainly behind 13 points from Gretzinger, who did not score in the second half.

Zach Rudolph had seven points and three assists and Ty Metz had seven points and six rebounds as well as a 3-pointer for the fourth straight game after having none in the first 13. Steliga had five second-half points and Anakin Stokes had a first-half basket off a Hraby steal.

“It’s a process every day,” Brown said of the offensive success. “We’re getting great shots. The guys really understand how to use the offense to their advantage. Tanner does a really good job of throwing the ball ahead knowing where we want to get the ball. There’s that balance between getting good early shots and then just working the ball into the post and into the paint where we’re so strong this year. In the last couple of games, the points we’re getting in the paint compared to other teams is almost double. We obviously want to play fast and shoot the 3, but we also want to continue to pound the ball in to Ty, to Logan and to Charlie in the post and we want them to just go at it.”

The Raiders host last-place Tomahawk Friday at 7:15 p.m. for Parents’ Night, then it’s the highly-anticipated sectional final rematch with La Crosse Central, set for 4:15 p.m. on Saturday. The Riverhawks are 12-5 against a rugged schedule and still feature some key names from last year’s team that beat Medford twice, including 6-6 swingman Bennett Fried and 6-2 senior guard Nic Williams.

“I’m looking forward to it,” Brown said. “Hopefully for Parents’ Night Friday we can play a lot of guys and just try to work on some things because Tomahawk always does a good job of playing hard and playing pretty disciplined. Hopefully we can rotate a lot of guys through so we’re rested and we can bring it at a 10 on Saturday.”

From there, Medford gets a rematch at Rhinelander on Tuesday. Wins over Tomahawk and Rhinelander would put Medford at 10-0 in the GNC and set them up well for their last two GNC games with Pines Feb. 10 and at Mosinee (6-2) Feb. 17. Those two teams play each other Tuesday in Eagle River.

Medford 81, Antigo 47

Medford’s offense was efficient Friday, leaving host Antigo with no chance to keep up in an 81-47 victory.

The Raiders pretty much checked all of the boxes offensively, shooting 55.4% from the field (31 of 56), including 19 of 25 on two-point shots. They knocked down a dozen 3-pointers, yet got nearly half of their points (38) in the paint, turned 23 Antigo turnovers into 28 points and got out and ran when the opportunities presented themselves. Medford had 22 assists on its 31 field goals and turned the ball over just eight times.

The Robins started the game in a triangle-and-two defense, looking to take away Baumgartner and Hraby. Baumgartner, however, scored 22 points on eight-of-13 shooting and was four of nine from 3-point range. Hraby finished with 11 points. Antigo’s focus on the perimeter, allowed for Kleist to find some room inside and he made Antigo pay by making eight of 10 shots, including an early 3, and scoring 17 points.

“It was great because we weren’t expecting it at all,” Brown said of the triangle- and-two. “But Central tried it last year. We might see it from other teams. We saw it earlier this year at Altoona. The first half was great because all the other guys stepped up. Tanner and Logan had maybe two points in our first 19. Other guys were hitting shots. Other guys were attacking.”

Antigo got a big game from their impressive inside presence Mason Gray, who scored a game-high 25 points and pulled down 15 rebounds, but Gus Schuessler was the only other Robin close to double figures with eight points.

The Raiders got their lead into double digits quickly with Rudolph pushing the ball up to Gierl for a 3 and then Gierl rebounding a missed 3 by Rudolph and kicking it back out to him for a made 3 that made it 16-5. Baumgartner and Metz hit 3s in a 12-4 spurt that made it 29-10. The lead hit 21 at 36-15 on a triple by Baumgartner. The Raiders settled for a 37-17 halftime lead.

Baumgartner scored eight early points in the second half, including two 3s and Kleist was most often the finisher in the middle of the half as Medford eventually led at one point late by 38.

Gierl had eight points, three rebounds and two assists. Metz had eight points, four rebounds and three steals. Rudolph added seven points, five assists and four rebounds. Nick Steliga scored five second- half points, including a 3-pointer. Stokes hit a 3 and had two assists.

“In the second half we were able to work on some things,” Brown said. “It was just basically using our own screening action but always including Logan and Tanner and Charlie. Z can obviously shoot it and Ty was able to post up and that worked great because Charlie can slip to the gap in the post and score. If we screen hard and use our different actions, Tanner and Logan can get wide open shots. That was good because if we do see that, then we kinda know how we want to start that and how to screen bodies and just make it tough for teams to just hang on our guys.”

Zach Rudolph (2) and Charlie Gierl (25) look to trap an Antigo guard Friday.JAMIE TAYLOR/ANTIGO DAILY JOURNAL