Chi-Hi bounces back with BRC win

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By DAVID BOSSICK
david.bossick@lee.net
Saturday, December 13, 2008 1:06 AM CST

Max Melberg never felt so good.

The senior, limited in his role this season because of a number of knee injuries, sank the front end of a bonus shot with 6.5 seconds to play to send Chippewa Falls to a 52-48 Big Rivers Conference victory against Rice Lake.

“It was the kid we wanted at the line. He’s a golfer and I love those kids. They’re mentally tough,” Chi-Hi coach Luke Madsen said. “They’re used to that individual competition. That’s what free throws are.”

Melberg capped off a late spurt by Chippewa (3-1, 1-1 BRC) that was made necessary from late game heroics from Rice Lake’s Derek West. West sank seven of his team-high 11 points in the quarter.

His shot with 59.6 seconds left brought the Warriors (1-3, 0-2 BRC) to within one point. Chi-Hi’s Cole Zwiefelhofer finished an 18-point night with a jumper with 32.3 seconds to push Chi-Hi’s lead to three points.

Rice Lake was unable to score on the next possession and Chi-Hi got the ball in Melberg’s hands for the winning free throw.

Zwiefelhofer was critical earlier in the fourth quarter, though. Partially by design and partially by missed shots, the Cardinals offense stagnated for nearly nine minutes of game time, from the 4:03 mark of the third quarter to the 3-minute mark of the fourth.

Zwiefelhofer got the ball into the lane and floated in a basket that pushed the Chippewa lead to six points.

“We wanted to have longer possessions offensively and we wanted layups only,” Madsen said. “We ended up getting a great shot but it didn’t go. . . Once you get into that more conservative mindset where it’s layup only, it’s hard to switch gears.

“We need to be able to do that because we don’t have a deep bench this year.”

Following a basket by West, Jared Jaquish hit one of his three 3-pointers that gave the Chi-Hi bench and the red-clad partisans something to cheer about.

The fourth quarter was set up by Chippewa’s ability to get past Rice Lake’s pesky full-court defenses. The Warriors mixed up exactly what was being run, but forcing the depth-starved Cardinals to play the entire floor showed late in the game.

“It’s a big concern, especially when that margin is shrinking,” Madsen said. “The basket looks smaller and our legs are tired. But, we trust our kids. We’re pretty well conditioned. They came through when it mattered.”

It also had an effect at the start. Rice Lake roared out to a quick 8-2 lead at the start, weathered a 10-0 Chippewa storm, and led 17-15 after the first quarter.

The Cardinals took control of the game before halftime as the team bombed four 3-pointers — one each from Zwiefelhofer, Jaquish, Dustin Kalien and Darren Gullickson.

Kalien took charge in the third with five of his 10 points, and that included challenging West.

And Jaquish made sure that Michigan Tech-bound Alex Culy didn’t hurt the Cardinals too much. Culy had 10 points, but six of those were at the free throw line.

“He took on what is probably the best guard in this part of the state,” Madsen said. “(He) really limited him with only two field goals.”

The win is a bounceback from a 17-point loss on the road to River Falls on Tuesday and Madsen believes the team on display Friday is the true Chi-Hi Cardinals.

“What we were on Tuesday night isn’t what this team is,” he said. “We didn’t compete on Tuesday night on a very high level. What you saw (Friday) was not what you saw Tuesday.”