RIB LAKE GIRLS BASKETBALL - No fun for Redmen at Phillips; Gumz leads way in Prentice win

RIB LAKE GIRLS BASKETBALL

The Rib Lake girls basketball team made headlines five weeks ago by nearly erasing a 34-point second-half deficit at Columbus Catholic.

There would be no such excitement Tuesday against the team that’s looking like the team to beat in the Marawood North.

As they’ve done several times in the last handful of seasons, the Phillips Loggers ate up the Redmen with defensive pressure and trapping in the first half, racing out to a 37-2 lead. The Loggers led 39-7 at the half and cruised from there to a 69-32 home win.

Fresh off a three-game trip to Florida, where they went 2-1, the Loggers improved to 4-1 in Marawood play, a halfgame behind 5-1 Athens in the North Division. However, the Loggers beat Athens handily 77-52 on Dec. 5. Phillips is 8-2 overall.

Rib Lake completed the pre-holidays portion of its schedule at 5-6 overall and 3-4 in Marawood. Both marks show higher win totals than Rib Lake had for all of last year.

Starting with full-court 1-2-2 pressure and then later settling back to half-court trapping, the Loggers popped the basketball loose often in the first half and were able to get out and run and get several easy baskets. Phillips scored the game’s first 28 points. Avery Niemi finally got Rib Lake on the board with 6:30 left in the half, finding a path through the lane for a layup. Tahlia Scheithauer found some space in Phillips’ zone to hit a 3-point shot and a long two-point jumper near the top of the circle to account for the rest of Rib Lake’s first-half points.

With Phillips pulling off the traps and rotating players regularly in the second half, Rib Lake was able to at least see the ball go through the basket more regularly, putting 25 points on the board. The Redmen got the deficit down to 30 a couple of times, but Phillips eventually stretched the lead over 40 and into running clock range for the last 5:35.

Emma Tlusty scored nine points for Rib Lake, all in the second half. Two of her field goals came off steals and the other two were off cuts and assists from Tessa Weik and Niemi. Tahlia Scheithauer hit another jumper to finish with seven. Weik scored six points, Josie Scheithauer added four and Madilyn Blomberg and Addison Gumz each chipped in with two.

The Loggers got 19 points from their star guard Kacy Eggebrecht and 18 more from their other standout guard Mataya Eckert. Forward Halle Lehman hit double figures with 10.

The game marked the first appearance for Rib Lake’s Austin Edwards as an opposing coach in the gym where he competed as a Logger from 2015-19.

Rib Lake is now off until Jan. 2 when it heads across the county for a non-conference game at Gilman.

Rib Lake 52, Prentice 42

In a game where most of the statistics were pretty even, Rib Lake’s Addison Gumz became the difference maker Friday night.

Gumz hit six of 11 3-point attempts while scoring a career- high 25 points to lead the Redmen to a 52-42 Marawood North win at Prentice. Gumz drilled four of those 3-pointers during a key eight-minute stretch in the second half where Rib Lake finally pulled away from the Buccaneers who, up until then, came fighting back every time the Redmen tried to create some distance.

Prentice’s top threat, Kali Heikkinen, nearly equaled Gumz by scoring 22 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. She just missed a triple-double by collecting eight steals.

But the six 3s by Gumz and one each from Kiana Dallmann and Niemi gave Rib Lake a key 24-12 scoring edge from 3-point range. In a physical game where 30 fouls were called and many more could have been called, the Redmen got to the free throw line nine more times than the Bucs did. Their 10-of-19 shooting there added another key four-point edge.

A Heikkinen steal and score tied the game at 25-25, but it was answered by a Gumz 3 with 12:10 to play. Leah Nehls tied it again with a 3 for Prentice, but Gumz came right back with another 3-ball to put Rib Lake in front with 11:35 left and, as it turned it, the Redmen would stay in the lead for good.

Niemi cut through the lane and scored and Tlusty weaved through traffic and scored after a steal for a 35-28 with 10:20 to go. The Bucs clawed back again, getting within 35-34, but a couple of free throws and then another Gumz 3 at the 5:15 mark got the lead back to five. Gumz swished her last trifecta from the left wing off a kickout pass from Niemi to make it a 43-35 game with 3:58 left.

Josie Scheithauer delivered the final dagger with a hoop and harm driving through the lane with 1:11 left. She missed the free throw but the 50-39 lead was more than enough to close it out.

Rib Lake led through most of the first half as well. The Redmen jumped ahead 7-6 following a Weik jumper and Josie Scheithauer’s pull-up bank shot. The lead hit 15-8 on Dallmann’s 3 and 20-13 on a Gumz 3 before Prentice crept back within 21-18 by the hald and 21-20 on Heikkinen’s rebound basket to start the second half.

Tlusty scored eight points for Rib Lake and had four rebounds, two assists and two steals. Niemi scored seven points and led Rib Lake with 10 rebounds. She had three assists and two steals. Weik had six points, five rebounds, three assists and two steals. Josie Scheithauer had six points, three rebounds and two rebounds. Dallmann finished with three points.

Rib Lake shot 38.6% from the floor (17 of 44), while Prentice shot 33.3% (16 for 48). Prentice had a 37-33 edge in rebounding. Prentice turned the ball over 26 times, while Rib Lake had 25 turnovers.