TOUGH END TO A GREAT YEAR


WIAA DIV. 2 SECTIONAL: LA CROSSE CENTRAL 57, MEDFORD 41
Riverhawks are better team once again, 57-41
The Medford Raidersâ to-do list for knocking off La Crosse Central in Thursdayâs WIAA Division 2 sectional semifinal was fairly standard for any basketball upset bid with making shots, staying out of foul trouble, getting some gift points off of turnovers and rebounding being at the top of the list.
The Raiders, unfortunately, checked none of those boxes when the game was within reach and were reminded how the Riverhawks are the last team you want to trail by more than a couple of possessions after halftime in a seasonending 57-41 defeat at Menomonie High School.
The Riverhawks (23-5) went on to clinch the programâs sixth Division 2 state tournament berth in eight years with a 48-44 win over New London (18-10) in Saturdayâs sectional final at Marshfield. Medford finished its stellar season at 22-5.
âIt was a heck of a year,â Medford head coach Ryan Brown said. âI canât say enough about this group, especially the seniors. The seniors have been great leaders. Theyâve worked extremely hard from day one. They wanted to get back to this game and have a chance at Central. I thought we did everything we needed to do to get here. Sometimes itâs your night and sometimes itâs not. Part of that is because Central is a really good team and a really good program. Part of it is we had some opportunities that we just didnât get.â
The Raiders found themselves in a 2014 hole at halftime, which did not seem insurmountable at the time. They hung in despite having starters Logan Baumgartner and Ty Metz pick up two and three fouls respectively to spend some time on the bench and shooting just 31.6% from the field (six of 19), including missing all six 3-point tries. Baumgartner, Medfordâs leading scorer, did not crack the scoring column in the first half.
The key issue in the half was La Crosse Centralâs ability to track down offensive rebounds. They got 12 of them on their 22 missed shots in the half and turned them into 14 second-chance points, foiling what Brown and the Raiders felt was actually excellent half-court defense.
Centralâs first three baskets all followed offensive rebounds, the Riverhawks then got a slam dunk from Bennett Fried off a Boston Brindley steal and then Henry Meyer got another secondchance hoop for a 10-5 lead seven minutes in.
âWe said if weâre going to win this game we have to rebound the ball well,â Brown said. Central wound up with a 37-28 overall advantage on the boards. âI think in the first game with them (a 67-58 loss on Feb. 4) they got about 50% of their misses. They came out and they were aggressive to the boards. I thought we were trying to go for them but they have tenacity. I thought we picked it up after the first few minutes and after that even toward the end we played with that same tenacity trying to go for the boards. But that hurt us early in the game where we couldâve gotten some stops and potentially gotten a lead.â
Baumgartner, back in the game after getting his second foul just 3:27 in, fed Metz for his second layup of the game and Charlie Kleist attacked from the left baseline and got his second bucket to get Medford within 10-9. But Central created a little separation again with hoops from Nic Williams, who got his own rebound, Fried and Meyer on another secondchance opportunity to go up 16-9. The Raiders crept within 18-14 on a Kleist free throw with 2:05, but Williams hit a tough shot on a baseline move to close the scoring in the half.
Medford had three possessions where it had a chance to dig into Centralâs sixpoint lead to start the second half, but the Raiders turned it over once and missed two shots. Williams hit a floater from the right side, Kleist was denied at the rim by Fried on a play that had the Raidersâ bench screaming for a goaltending call that never came and Meyer hit a 3-point dagger at the 15-minute mark to put Central up 25-14 in what one could argue was the gameâs most pivotal momentum swing. Fried added two free throws with 14:08 putting Medford in a tough spot down 27-14 against a team that had turned the ball over only once up to that point ââ and remarkably never turned it over again.
âIt stinks when your best player gets two fouls, then Ty whoâs kind of our screener and our rebounder and a guy who can get Logan open, gets three,â Brown said. âIt hurt, but I was really happy (at halftime). We said we havenât played that well and itâs a six-point game. Weâre still in the game. We wanted to come out, we ran a little set that we thought could get somebody open.
âWe kept it within a certain range, but we just couldnât quite get it tight again and theyâre just so good at extending and holding and being patient until they can break you down.â
For the most part, that was how the rest of the second half went. Baumgartner got his offensive game going, scoring 21 points, the Raiders tried to speed the game up and extend it, but head coach Todd Fergotâs Riverhawks were masterful at bleeding clock until they got a layup or a foul and the Raiders just didnât have enough successful possessions to put a serious dent in Centralâs lead.
Baumgartnerâs back-to-back hoops in the lane made it 27-18 with 12:33 left and his 3-pointer with 5:40 to go made it 37-25 but that was all the closer Medford got.
âWe tried to speed up the game and methodically foul and pressure a little bit with some traps,â Brown said. âWe did some things but theyâre obviously a really good team so they were able to capitalize and get some easy baskets.â
Baumgartner finished with seven rebounds to go with his 21 points. He closed his magnificent career by hitting a deep 3-pointer from the left wing with 46.6 seconds left.
Kleist ended his big senior year with 10 points, eight rebounds and the teamâs only steal in the final second of the first half. Metz had six points and six rebounds and Zach Rudolph had a bucket in the first half. Seniors Anakin Stokes and Vince Seidel also got court time in their final basketball games. Junior Tanner Hraby had two points and three assists.
Medford shot 33.3% from the field overall (16 of 48) but was just three of 23 on 3-point shots. Central had a 10-point advantage at the free throw line with most of that coming late. The Riverhawks were 16 of 19 while Medford was six of nine. Medford turned the ball over only seven times, but Central turned those into eight key points as well.
Meyer had his second big game of the year against the Raiders. After scoring 27 in the February meeting, he had 23 points this time, hit Centralâs only 3-point make in 10 attempts and was eight of eight on free throws. The 6-7 Fried scored 16 points and had 11 rebounds and Williams, the Mississippi Valley Conference Player of the Year, added 14 points.
âI thought our defense was really good,â Brown said. âUltimately some of the baskets that happened late were just from us having to take chances or foul. Our goal tonight was to hold them under 50. We thought we could stay in the game. We knew they would play pretty methodically and so would we.â
Though the season ended in disappointment, Brown said the positives of the year will, by far, outweigh its conclusion.
âYou think about Logan leaving as our schoolâs all-time leading scorer and guys like Charlie, Ty, Zach, Anakin and Vince, theyâre just great kids,â he said. âI love them. I said just like I do when we win, âyouâre going to have bigger moments than this. Youâre going to have big moments when you get married, have kids and be a dad. This is just going to make you tougher and itâs going to build character in you.â I appreciate all theyâve done for us from day one.â

Medfordâs Anakin Stokes tries to give La Crosse Centralâs Boston Brindley as little room as possible late in Thursdayâs 57-41 WIAA Division 2 sectional semifinal loss to the Riverhawks in Menomonie. Stokes was one of six Raider seniors to play his final game for the program Thursday.PHOTOS BY MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS

Medfordâs Ty Metz stays in front of La Crosse Central guard Nic Williams during the second half of Thursdayâs sectional semifinal.

Logan Baumgartner and head coach Ryan Brown embrace and the emotions hit Charlie Kleist as the final seconds ticked away in Thursdayâs loss to La Crosse Central.

