This story is sponsored by Dental Clinic of Marshfield
By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
MARSHFIELD – The Marshfield boys basketball team had a chance to knock off an undefeated team and pull into first place in the Wisconsin Valley Conference standings on Friday by beating Wisconsin Rapids. Instead, the Raiders solidified themselves as the mid-season favorite to dethrone the Tigers as WVC champions.
Vinny Ritchay scored nine of his game-high 25 points in the first 2:38 of the second half, leading Rapids on an 11-0 run that changed the course of the game and pushed the Raiders to a 48-33 win over the Tigers at the Marshfield High School Fieldhouse.
Wisconsin Rapids, ranked seventh in this week’s Wissports.net State Coaches Poll, remains perfect at 13-0 and 5-0 in the Valley, while 12th-ranked Marshfield drops to 12-2 and 4-2 in the WVC.
Marshfield jumped out to a 10-3 lead in the first quarter. A rebound and basket by Brandon Brown and four straight free throws by Elliot Ashbeck gave the Tigers the early advantage, but the first of many offensive droughts kept them from building on it.
Ritchay scored five points in a 6-0 run to close the quarter with Rapids trailing 10-9. Ritchay’s second of his five 3-pointers gave the Raiders a 16-14 lead at the 4:34 mark of the second quarter. Neither team scored the rest of the half as Rapids took the slim advantage into intermission.
The second half began with a bang for the Raiders, and Ritchay. Frank Vruwink scored on the opening possession and Ritchay scored on the Raiders’ next three possessions, all following Marshfield turnovers. Ritchay converted a conventional three-point play and back-to-back 3-pointers to put Rapids up 27-14 just 2:38 into the third quarter.
“The spurt to start the third quarter got it up to (13 points) and they pulled it out, make us get out of the zone defense and we had no choice at that point to come out,” Marshfield coach Craig Michaelis said. “They continued the intensity they had and we didn’t match it on defense. They were the better team tonight. We’ve got some time left to do something about that.”
Ashbeck ended the rally and Marshfield eventually regrouped, pulling to within 33-25 after a 3-pointer by Cale Zuiker.
Again, Marshfield went cold, and this time for good. The Tigers managed just one more made field goal over the final 9:26 of the game.
Ritchay hit another 3-pointer at the buzzer of the third quarter, giving the Raiders a 36-25 lead, and Rapids scored the first seven points of the fourth to open up an 18-point advantage. Marshfield shot just 10 of 33 from the floor and 1 of 11 from 3-point range just three days after the Tigers made 12 3-pointers in a rout of Tomah.
“We knew it was going to be a physical ball game,” Michaelis said. “We knew they were going to try to push their way into Cale and push their way into Elliot to try to get them off of their game.
“The first half, other than taking advantage of a few more scoring opportunities, I thought defensively we were right where we wanted to be. In just a couple minutes to start the second half, they came out with a different intensity and to me that was the difference.”
Marshfield is off until next Friday when it travels to Merrill.
Raiders 48, Tigers 33
Wisconsin Rapids 9 7 20 12 – 48
Marshfield 10 4 11 8 – 33
WISCONSIN RAPIDS (48): Jake Bassuener 0-1 0-0 0, Dylan Lubeck 4-9 0-0 10, Brady Goska 1-6 3-4 5, Cort Halbur 0-2 0-0 0, Tim Quick 0-0 0-0 0, Ben Hofer 0-0 0-0 0, Alex Wodlarski 0-0 0-0 0, Joe Ritchay 8-13 4-6 25, Tyler Leverance 0-1 0-0 0, Bob Slovensky 3-4 0-0 6, Frank Vruwink 1-2 0-0 2. FG: 17-38. FT: 7-10. 3-pointers: 7-12 (Ritchay 5-7, Lubeck 2-3, Halbur 0-2). Rebounds: 18 (Slovensky 4, Ritchay 4). Turnovers: 6. Total fouls: 15. Fouled out: Goska. Record: 13-0, 5-0 Wisconsin Valley Conference.
MARSHFIELD (33): Josh Hennes 0-0 0-0 0, Brody Erickson 0-0 0-0 0, Ian Padron 1-2 2-2 4, Elliot Ashbeck 2-10 8-8 12, Sean Koran 1-2 0-0 2, Adam Voss 0-1 0-0 0, Cale Zuiker 3-12 2-2 9, Brandon Brown 1-3 0-0 2, Chris Stemen 0-0 0-0 0, Dustin Thumann 2-3 0-0 4, Alex Arendt 0-0 0-0 0, Jon Bauer 0-0 0-0 0. FG: 10-33. FT: 12-12. 3-pointers: 1-11 (Zuiker 1-6, Ashbeck 0-3, Brown 0-1, Koran 0-1). Rebounds: 23 (Brown 6, Padron 6). Turnovers: 15. Total fouls: 13. Fouled out: none. Record: 12-2, 4-2 Wisconsin Valley Conference.