December 29, 2017 at 12:18 p.m.
La Follette hems in Lady Hodags 59-38
La Follette hems in Lady Hodags 59-38
The Hodags shot only 25 percent from the field and committed 21 turnovers Thursday in a 59-38 loss to Madison La Follette in the first game of a holiday tournament at Wisconsin Rapids Lincoln High School.
Rhinelander (5-4, 2-1 Great Northern) never led in the contest. The Lancers used a pair of late first-half runs to take a 33-23 lead at halftime, and then opened the second half on a 12-5 spurt to put the game out of reach.
La Follette appeared to possess more height and more athleticism than the Hodags, which showed up in turnovers and blocked shots, as well as a 42-29 rebounding advantage.
"We saw some more athleticism and speed," Rhinelander coach Ryan Clark said. "I think we've got to work on decision making from our guards. We'd attack, and I think that's where some of the blocked shots came. We'd get in there and just think we were going to shoot it and then the big helped over and we were still going to shoot instead of jump stop, re-pivot and kick it out. We'll learn from that."
After the teams traded buckets over the opening nine minutes, Nyenhail Riak hit one of her game-high four 3-pointers and Kiara Lee got a three-point play off an offensive rebound to put La Follette ahead 21-10. Rhinelander cut the lead to six with 4:37 remaining in the half, but the Lancers went on another 9-2 spurt from there and eventually led by 10 at halftime.
A couple of baskets by Megan Lowery sparked La Follette's run early in the second half, which ended with a pair of free throws by Kaytlin Eder that put the Lancers up 45-28 with 10:27 remaining.
Eder didn't miss a single shot from the field or the free throw line as she finished with 16 points for La Follette. Riak scored 16 as well.
"No. 5 (Eder) was a nice player for them. When she had the ball in her hand, we weren't as effective (with the press), but she didn't have the ball we had some turnovers," Clark said. "We went in blind but (we knew that) No. 30 (Riak) could hit a 3, but she wasn't a driver. We make a sub and she lets No. 30 hit another 3. When we go into a team blind, we're going to make a lot of adjustments early, we just needed to execute that better."
Lowery added 10 for La Follette, which shot 40 percent (20 of 50) from the floor and committed 25 turnovers.
Kenedy Van Zile finished a rebound shy of a double-double and led all scorers with 18 for Rhinelander.
Ally Seefeldt added 11, but the two Hodag guards combined to shoot 9 of 33 from the field.
The rest of the team scored only nine points put together and Rhinelander was 11 of 44 overall, and only 13 of 25 from the free throw line.
"We didn't shoot well," Clark said. "Twenty-five percent isn't going to (cut it). I told the girls I thought our effort was pretty good, our execution in pressing was OK, but sometimes effort isn't enough when you play a quality opponent. We've got to take care of the ball a little better and we've got to shoot better, especially from the free throw line."
The Hodags faced Wisconsin Rapids Friday afternoon in a game that concluded after deadline. Rhinelander returns to Great Northern Conference play on Tuesday against Tomahawk.
Tip-off is set for 7:15 p.m. at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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