December 11, 2017 at 2:06 p.m.
Lakeland runs past Lady Hodags 71-55
Lakeland runs past Lady Hodags 71-55
The Rhinelander Hodags were victims of two such runs Friday night.
The T-Birds used a 19-6 spurt to close the first half, and an 18-4 push to begin the second, to race past the Hodags 71-55 in a GNC matchup at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium.
The loss snapped Rhinelander's four-game winning streak (4-2, 1-1 Great Northern) and also ended Lakeland's three-game slide (2-4, 1-0). Afterward, one thing was certain.
"They're clearly the better team," Rhinelander coach Ryan Clark said.
The Hodags led 21-18 with 5:10 remaining in the first half but Lakeland's Melissa Bruckner, who led all scorers with 24 points, converted back-to-back three-point plays to start the T-Birds' late first-half surge.
After Ally Seefeldt hit a long 2 to tie the game at 26, Lakeland responded with a 11-1 push to close out the half that included a pair of 3s by Olivia Killian and a triple by Abby Parris. Overall, Lakeland was 9 of 15 from beyond the 3-point arc in the contest.
"That run they made at the end of the first half - they made a couple 3s but they got some steals, got an and-1 and some layups - and it went to 10. We're down 10 at the half. Then they started the second half and turned us over again and had another run," Clark said.
Lakeland reeled off the first 11 points of the second half to push the lead to 21. The lead hovered in the high teens to low 20s the rest of the way.
"It's hard to get back on them. They can slow it down if they want to. They have their five out (offense). They were very efficient and effective against us," Clark said.
The Hodags lost despite double-digit efforts from all three of their leading scorers. Sophomore point guard Kenedy Van Zile, listed at all of 5-foot-3, had her first career double-double, scoring 20 points and pulling down 12 rebounds.
"Pound-for-pound, she's a strong kid and we require a lot from her because she's our best ball handler," Clark said. "She's got to attack through the press, but she gets on the glass and she rebounds. We really ever take her off the floor. She's just going to get better and better. She's only a sophomore. You'd think she's older because she's had so much experience, but she's just a young sophomore and she'll get better."
Ally Seefeldt scored all 14 of her points in the first half as she made four of her first seven attempts from long range. She was held scoreless in the second half after picking up her third and fourth personal fouls within the first four minutes of the half. Brooke Mork added 13 for Rhinelander.
As a team, however, Rhinelander shot only 36.5 percent (23 of 63) from the field, committed 28 turnovers and struggled to finish in transition. Lakeland, conversely, was nearly 53 percent on 29 of 55 shooting.
"We had nine or 10 missed bunnies, a lot of those were missed breakaway layups. That just killed us," Clark said. "We need to finish. I don't think Lakeland missed many opportunities when they had the chance to. They finished better than we did. They're strong and they finished the play. That hurt.
"They forced a lot of turnovers. We were not effective pressing them at all. We'll have to go back and reevaluate when we play them again, because they walked right through our press and they caused a lot of turnovers."
Killian had a double-double over her own for Lakeland with 15 points and 10 rebounds. Parris finished with 13 points while Zoey Ziebart chipped in nine.
The Hodags return to action this coming Friday at Northland Pines.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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