February 13, 2017 at 3:20 p.m.
Lady Hodags brush off seeding snub, beat Mosinee 59-38
Lady Hodags brush off seeding snub, beat Mosinee 59-38
Rhinelander overcame a slow start and used a 20-0 run in the second half to defeat Mosinee 59-38 at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium.
The Hodags (7-10, 5-6 Great Northern) previously had a head-to-head win against Mosinee (8-11, 4-6 Great Northern), but were seeded behind the Indians Saturday afternoon in a WIAA Division 2 regional seeding meeting. Rhinelander received the No. 8 seed in the bracket and will host ninth-seeded Antigo next Tuesday at the Miazga Gym. Mosinee wound up with the seven seed, despite a 53-51 home loss to Rhinelander Jan. 7. The Hodags' chance to further strengthen its argument head-to-head against Mosinee was weakened when the rematch, originally scheduled for Tuesday, was postponed due to freezing rain.
"That was frustrating," RHS girls' basketball coach Ryan Clark said. "Mosinee had a good win against Merrill and stuff, but it would have been nice if we could have played this game earlier this week so we would have had two wins on them.
"Like I told the girls, we can't do anything about it now, but we could still make a statement with this game."
The Hodags did make a statement, though it took a little while for them to make it. Rhinelander was only 5-of-24 from the field in the first half, but still led 22-20 at the break.
Finally, midway through the second, the shots started falling. Ally Seefeldt scored on a give-and-go from Molly Wagler with 12:43 left as the Hodags took the lead for good, up 27-26, but the Hodags put the hammer down with less than seven minutes to play. Leading 39-33, Kaly Kostrova and Maddie Meyer combined to hit three 3-pointers on three consecutive possessions to balloon the advantage to 15. It sparked a 20-point run that put the game out of reach.
"That's where the 3-point line does make a big difference," Clark said. "You can change the game pretty quickly. It was such a grind for so long so that was a great spurt and it was a great second half."
Kostrova finished with 20 points for the Hodags, but she had to work to get her points. Like the rest of the team, Kostrova started cold, making only one of her first 13 shots. She made five of her last six beginning with a 3 from the right wing that put Rhinelander up 32-28 with 10:42 remaining. She followed with a basket, and-1, to push the lead to seven a short time later.
"I told her at halftime, 'Shooters shoot, you've got to keep shooting,'" Clark said. "She had a lot of good looks in the first half and didn't knock them down, but if she stopped shooting, she would have never have had that spurt in the second half."
Rhinelander trailed by as many as eight points in the first half as it started 0-for-12 from the field, but hung around thanks to a defense that forced 15 first-half turnovers and a 12-for-12 performance from the foul line over the first 18 minutes. Brooke Mork hit two free throws with 50.7 seconds left in the half to give Rhinelander a 22-20 lead.
"That was probably the only reason we were in the game the first half is we hit our free throws," Clark said. "We're a 60 percent free throw shooting team. We talked about this about a week and a half ago. It's not like we can just go from 60 percent to 75, but we can at least still get to the line. That's been our focus and 12 free throw attempts in the first half, and making all 12, was probably the key in the first half."
Seefeldt finished with 13 points for Rhinelander, while Ali Schickert had 12. The 6-1 Schickert, who normally does her scoring in the low post, showed off some range Saturday night, hitting an elbow jumper and a shot from just inside the 3-point line in the second half.
"She does a good job on the perimeter," Clark said. "She's a big player inside that can score inside, but she also makes good decision on the perimeter. When she pops out there, she can shoot it, but she can also hit those little cutters cutting through there. She had a very nice game for us."
McKayla Garski led Mosinee with eight points in the loss.
Hodags handle Hatchets
A night earlier, Rhinelander had little trouble dispatching winless Tomahawk 60-27 at Hatchet Fieldhouse.
The Hodags led 33-12 at halftime and cruised in the second half while expanding their bench. Clark said Friday night's contest was more about playing against the game than the opponent for his team.
"We talked about how we could still win on the scoreboard but it feel like a loss. We couldn't play sloppy and we only had seven turnovers last night, played a very clean game," he said.
Kostrova had 20 points to lead the way and the Hodags had plenty of balance after that. Seefeldt had seven, Mork had six and Kenedy Van Zile, Erika Jorgensen and Schickert scored five each. Sierra Graeber scored 16 of Tomahawk's 27 points.
"Last night I wanted to push the tempo a little bit and we built a good lead right away," Clark said. "We got all of our kids playing time. I think the starters got no more than 15 minutes, which we needed to for tonight's game."
The Hodags played the Hatchets again Monday night in Rhinelander in a game that concluded after deadline. Rhinelander is on the road Tuesday night at Marshfield and will conclude the regular season with a non-conference game at Crandon on Thursday.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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