Past season’s toughest stretch, Raiders get GNC win at Antigo

The Antigo Red Robins spent about 33 minutes trying to catch the Medford Raiders Tuesday night. In a matter of seconds, all that work was gone.

The visiting Raiders broke away from a 50-50 tie with 2:41 left by scoring 10 points in a little more than a minute, sealing their 64-52 win and the end of a seven-game losing streak that occurred in what was likely to be the toughest stretch of the girls’ 2023-24 schedule.

Medford broke into the Great Northern Conference win column for the first time and sits at 1-3 in league play and 3-8 overall. Antigo dropped to 1-4, 2-7.

The Raiders got big outings from Rylee Hraby, who scored 18 points, including seven in the big 10-point run that won it for Medford, and freshman Kayla Baumgartner, who found some room to operate on the low block and responded with a season-high 15 points. Freshman Taylor Klingbeil came up big late, scoring all eight of her points in the second half and Aliyah Pilgrim knocked down four triples for 12 points.

With Antigo employing a 3-2 zone look defensively, the Raiders did a solid job of working the ball for good shots and continued to show improvement in making them.

Medford got points in the paint from Breanna Kraemer and Baumgartner right out of the game and Hraby sank the first of her two 3s on the night for a quick 7-0 lead. Toryn Rau and Pilgrim drained 3s, Baumgartner scored on the block and Kraemer hit a little turnaround jumper for a 19-9 edge 11 minutes in.

Antigo cut into that lead, making it 2420 at the half thanks to a Nevaeh Malone 3-pointer with 15 seconds left. A Malone bucket to start the second half cut Medford’s lead to two.

But Hraby’s 3 got Medford going again. Baumgartner hit two free throws and scored off a Kraemer assist. Pilgrim nailed a trey off a Baumgartner kickout and Baumgartner fed a cutting Klingbeil for an easy one to pushed the lead to 10 at 36-26 with 13 minutes left.

A Klingbeil 3 made it 44-37 with seven minutes and Pilgrim added another for a 47-38 edge with just over six minutes to play. When Kraemer pulled down an offensive rebound and got the ball to Klingbeil, who found Pilgrim for an open 3 that made it 50-41, the Raiders seemed to be well on their way to the win with 5:20 left.

But that’s when fouls caught up to the Raiders. Rau and Pilgrim fouled out and Antigo chipped away at the free throw line, tying it on Jenna Czarneski’s free throw at the 2:41 mark.

But Medford wasted no time in regaining the lead, feeding Kraemer in the post for the go-ahead basket 11 seconds later. Fifteen seconds after that, Hraby got a steal and score and was fouled. A technical foul after the call gave Hraby three free throws and she buried them all for a seven-point lead. She hit two more bonus throws at the 1:47 mark and Rachel Wesle’s only point of the night came on a free throw that made it 60-50 with 1:10 left. The Raiders closed it out from there and celebrated their first win in exactly four weeks.

Kraemer had a nice night for Medford with six points. Rau had four before exiting.

Junior forward Tristin Arlen led Antigo with 15 points. Keelyn Zwirschitz had 12 and Czerneski hit double figures with 10.

Medford is off until next week’s twoday excursion to Wisconsin Dells. The Raiders will face the host Chiefs at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 27 and then play Ripon the following day at 11 a.m.

Rice Lake 65, Medford 38

University of Northern Iowa recruit Eliana Sheplee was a handful, scoring 31 points to lead Rice Lake to a 65-38 nonconference win over Medford Friday at Raider Hall.

The Raiders hung tough through the first half, only trailing 27-18 at the half. But some of the shots that fell in the first 18 minutes stopped going in after the break and Rice Lake’s physical domination in the paint took over. The Warriors pulled down 17 offensive rebounds in the second half and 24 overall. Those led to 22 second-chance points. The Warriors also scored 22 points off 27 Medford turnovers and comfortably improved to 5-2 at the time.

Pilgrim matched her season and career high with 12 points, scoring eight of them in the first half. She hit two 3-pointers and Hraby knocked one down early to keep the Raiders within 16-11 through the first nine minutes. Pilgrim scored at the end of a press break off a nice pass from Hraby to make it 22-13, Rau hit two of three free throws after getting fouled by Sheplee, her second of the half which put her on the bench for the last 4:18, and Baumgartner scored inside to pull Medford within 24-17.

The single-digit deficit, though, did not last long after halftime. Sheplee scored right away, followed by an Emily Kalina score, a three-point play by 6-1 post Addison Schmidt and a score from Schmidt on the block to quickly make it 36-18. Hraby hit her second 3 of the night, but that didn’t slow down the Warriors much as they scored the next nine points to put it out of reach at 47-21.

Schmidt scored all 14 of her points in the second half, plus she had eight rebounds. Five of those boards came on the offensive end. Sheplee had eight rebounds, six of them offensive, and had four steals.

After Pilgrim’s 12 points, Hraby scored eight and added four rebounds, two assists and two steals. Baumgartner scored five points and had nine rebounds, three assists and two steals. Rau had four points, two rebounds and two assists. Wesle converted a three-point play midway through the second half, while Bailey Eloranta sank all three free throws after getting fouled on a trey attempt with 4.3 seconds left.

Kraemer added a bucket and Klingbeil had a free throw, four rebounds and two assists.

While it was tough going at times inside, the Raiders didn’t back down either, blocking six Rice Lake shots. Baumgartner had three of them, Rau had two and Kraemer blocked one.

Medford made six of 15 shots from the field in the first half, including three of eight 3s, but the Raiders cooled to five of 22 in the second half.

Aliyah Pilgrim