Raiders sharp in tournament opener, roll past the Mustangs

WIAA DIV. 2: MEDFORD 73, MENOMONIE 41

The Medford Raiders got their WIAA Division 2 boys basketball tournament run off to a strong start Friday, shooting 57.7% from the field, dominating the boards and digging in defensively from the middle of the first half on to run away from the Menomonie Mustangs 73-41 in a regional semifinal played at Raider Hall.

Down 8-6 early, Medford went on a 19-0 run to take command at 25-8 and wasn’t seriously threatened after that while ending the eighth-seeded Mustangs’ season at 10-16. The top-seeded Raiders (22-4) went on to beat fifth-seeded Rice Lake in Saturday’s regional final 53-42 and faces third-seeded La Crosse Central (21-5) tonight, Thursday, in a sectional semifinal at Menomonie.

After waiting out a first-round bye, the Raiders were pleased with how smoothly they played in their tournament opener.

“You’re always a little nervous for sure,” said junior Tanner Hraby, who was one of five Raiders in double figures with his 15 points. “I’d say the first one is a big one. It gets your confidence going.”

“It’s good to get a bye, but you know that second round is going to be against a team with some talent,” Medford head coach Ryan Brown said. “We were playing a Big Rivers team right away who just beat a good New Richmond team. It felt good to come out and play some good basketball. In the last couple of days, we had just short practices but guys were really locked in in our run-throughs.”

As it usually is with the Raiders, their big run in the first half was just as much about defense as it was offense. While Medford had seen Menomonie once already this season, beating the Mustangs 64-41 in their gym on Jan. 24, Brown said he was happy with how the Raiders prepared for what they do and how they limited Menomonie’s leading scorer, Charlie Morning to just 10 points, five in each half.

“Menomonie basically runs a set every time down,” Brown said. “There’s a lot of back screens, a lot of things that are hard to guard. Our guys were locked in. You saw it in Zach Rudolph. You saw it in Charlie Kleist getting over back screens and jumping to the ball. They made some shots early, but our defense really set the tone. Once they had to make tough, contested shots they weren’t able to do that. We were able to hold them to one shot and then go down and run some good offense.”

Rudolph was the primary defender on Morning in Medford’s man-to-man defense. He finished with three steals and five defensive deflections and added six assists offensively to go with five points.

“The first thing is I just want to make contact first,” Rudolph said. “He made his first cut and I just got into him a little bit and that just put a spark in me I guess. In the first half I just locked in and I didn’t want to get scored on. I just wanted to hold him to zero as long as I could. It’s playoff basketball. They let us play a little more. I was just bumping him on cuts, pressuring, chopping my feet. It’s about making yourself look bigger than you actually are.”

Rudolph scored the tying bucket to make it 8-8, then Hraby and Charlie Gierl hit back-to-back 3s and Hraby sank two free throws. Rudolph’s steal led to a Kleist basket, then Kleist had the assist on Ty Metz’s post-up, three-point play opportunity. Metz missed the free throw, but Gierl got the rebound, leading to a Hraby score and a 22-8 lead. Hraby assisted on the second of Gierl’s three first-half 3s that capped the 19-0 run.

Gierl scored all 11 of his points in the first half and helped carry Medford through the back end of the first half when leading scorer Logan Baumgartner was out for a long stretch with two fouls.

“That was huge,” Hraby said. “He hit a couple of 3s. Those are big shots. You need those, especially when their focus is elsewhere.”

“Charlie was huge,” Brown said. “He shot it with confidence. He’s just continued to work on his shot all year long. He saw the first one go in, his teammates were encouraging him to keep looking for it. That was huge for us because Logan had two fouls and normally we would look to bring Logan back in and trust him with two, but with the lead continuing to grow with Charlie on the floor, we were able to let Logan rest and stay away from getting that third foul.”

Medford led 38-23 at halftime, but Baumgartner hit a 3 to open the second half. Rudolph tracked down an errant Menomonie pass and kicked the ball out to Baumgartner for a jumper, Baumgartner hit Metz with a long pass for a transition layup, Hraby hit a short shot in the lane, Kleist got credit for two on a goaltending goal and he added a free throw at the 14:25 mark to cap a 12-0 knockout punch that opened up a 50-23 lead. Hraby hit a couple of 3s and Anakin Stokes hit one to help the Raiders keep plenty of distance from the Mustangs the rest of the way.

Hraby and Kleist finished with 15 points apiece. Kleist had seven rebounds and five assists. Hraby had three assists and three rebounds. Metz and Baumgartner scored 11 points each. Baumgartner had five assists and four rebounds. Metz completed a double-double with 11 rebounds, plus he had three steals. Stokes finished with five points and three rebounds.

Morning’s 10 points led Menomonie, while Brody Thornton added nine.

The Raiders were 30 of 52 from the field, including nine of 19 from 3-point range. They held a huge 32-12 rebounding advantage and scored 26 points off 16 Menomonie turnovers. The Mustangs had just two offensive rebounds.

“That was big,” Brown said. “We talked about it. We said defense wins championships, but rebounding does too because you can get all the stops in the world, but if you can’t go get the ball, it doesn’t matter.”

Medford’s Logan Baumgartner (l.) and Zach Rudolph and Menomonie’s Charlie Morning reach for a loose ball during the first half of the Raiders’ 73-41 win over the visiting Mustangs in Friday’s WIAA Division 2 regional semifinal.MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS