Falcons, Cardinals take flight early in Rib Lake’s home defeats

RIB LAKE GIRLS BASKETBALL

A nine-minute scoring drought in the first half put the Rib Lake girls basketball team in a hole it couldn’t dig out of Tuesday in a 57-32 home loss to Marawood North rival Abbotsford.

Defensively, Rib Lake got some stops early out of its 2-3 zone and drew three charges against the Falcons. Kamryn Annala drew one and Addison Gumz two more. Abbotsford’s initial offense came mainly through transition scores off turnovers, but eventually the Falcons got some cuts and passes to lead to easy scores and pulled out to a 17-2 lead before Annala ended the drought with a 3-pointer with 9:33 left in the first half.

Abbotsford, though, got a bucket from Brissa Diaz-Miranda and a 3-pointer from Calley Ruesch to open up a 22-5 lead. The margin grew to 30-9 before Avery Niemi’s banked 3-point shot rolled around the rim and in for a 30-12 halftime score.

Niemi was four for four from the free throw line in the first half to account for seven of Rib Lake’s points. She had the magic touch from the outside, going glass on another 3-point shot in the second half and having another bounce high off the rim and through. Those triples helped reduce what was a 28-point lead for the Falcons down to 19 at 44-25 with about 11 minutes left, but Abbotsford (6-7, 12-7) went on a 9-0 surge to go back up by 28 at 53-25.

Niemi led Rib Lake with 15 points, which is a new season-high for the freshman. Josie Scheithauer had eight points, all in the second half and Annala added seven on her Senior Night. Addison Gumz had Rib Lake’s first basket of the game. Maria Fernanda Bellini Accetturi was Rib Lake’s other senior honored by starting the game.

The Falcons got 18 points from Sydney Falteisek, who scored 12 of those points in the first half. Ruesch scored 10 points and Briseida Escalera added 10.

Rib Lake (3-16 overall) has four more games to close out the regular season. Tonight, Thursday, the Lady Redmen will be in Stratford for their last Marawood Conference crossover game of the season. Tip time is 7:15 p.m.

On Monday, Rib Lake will welcome cross-county rival Gilman for a nonconference game that has been moved up to 6:30 p.m. This will be Rib Lake’s final home appearance of the season. The following night, Rib Lake heads to Tomahawk for another non-conference contest. League play concludes Feb. 16 at Prentice.

The WIAA Division 5 tournament brackets will be set this weekend with regional play set to start on Feb. 21.

Newman 60, Rib Lake 40

On Thursday, the Lady Redmen fell behind 20-7 in the first nine minutes and spent the rest of the night trying to catch up in a 60-40 loss to visiting Newman Catholic in a Marawood Conference crossover.

The shooting percentages were nearly the same between the teams and Rib Lake held a 40-34 rebounding advantage, but the Redmen were done in by 35 turnovers and by making just seven of 23 free throws.

Newman outscored Rib Lake 18-9 from 3-point range and got 12 of those points in the early going. Maggie Wulf and Sidney Galang both drained a pair of early 3s in Newman’s early run to a double-digit lead.

The Redmen stabilized things somewhat with their man-to-man defense and by not only successfully breaking Newman’s full-court press, but punishing them for doing it by finishing on the offensive end.

Niemi got a couple of scores, including a baseline jumper and Annala scored at the end of a press break to cut the deficit to 22-13. Kiana Dallmann capped a strong first half by scoring off a nice diagonal pass from Scheithauer to make it 28-15 and Madison Grzanna got a defensive rebound, drove to the other end and pulledup from just inside the free throw line to score and keep Rib Lake within 33-17 at the half.

Gumz got a shot to roll in to start the second half, but Rib Lake was unable to gain any serious traction in the final 18 minutes. A Niemi 3 got it to 40-24 and that was as close as the Redmen got, despite a high-energy second-half effort from freshman Emma Tlusty, who scored nine points and had three rebounds and four steals. She had one of Rib Lake’s three 3s in the game.

Niemi led the Redmen with 11 points and had five rebounds. Annala added nine points and had four boards and two steals. Dallmann finished with five points and four rebounds. Scheithauer had a bucket, six rebounds and two assists. Gumz had a hoop, five rebounds and two steals. Grzanna had two points, three rebounds and two assists.

The Cardinals, who improved to 3-9 in the Marawood South and 10-10 overall at the time, got 22 points and four 3s from Wulf and 20 points and six steals from Galang. Newman shot 36.5% from the field (23 of 63), while Rib Lake shot 35.7% (15 of 42), including three of 10 from behind the arc. Newman turned the ball over 21 times.

Mellen 50, Rib Lake 41

On Jan. 31, Rib Lake was sunk by Mellen’s free throw shooting in a 50-41 nonconference loss to the host Granite Diggers.

Mellen distanced itself from a 26-23 halftime lead by making 11 of 16 secondhalf free throws. For the game, Mellen was 13 of 22, holding a key six-point advantage over Rib Lake, who was seven of 12.

Britta Josephson keyed Mellen’s three-point halftime lead by scoring 10 of her 17 points in the first 18 minutes. Makenah Stricker made six of eight free throws in the second half to finish with 14 points.

Rib Lake kept pace in the first half by getting seven points from Josie Scheithauer, including a 3-pointer, and six points off the bench from Jennie Pichea. Those six points were a seasonhigh for Pichea.

Scheithauer hit three more field goals in the second half and led Rib Lake with 14 points. Annala hit a 3-pointer and finished with five points, all in the second half. Niemi scored six points and Tahlia Scheithauer added four first-half points. Isabelle Gumz and Addison Gumz had a basket apiece. Tlusty made two of four free throws in the second half.