February 15, 2017 at 1:21 p.m.
Lady Hodags fall to Marshfield, beat Tomahawk
Lady Hodags fall to Marshfield, beat Tomahawk
A slow start doomed the Hodags (8-13, 6-6 Great Northern) on Tuesday, as they fell behind 40-22 at halftime. Rhinelander made a mini-run to cut the lead to 13 early in the second before the Tigers pulled away.
"Marshfield, they're in the (Wisconsin) Valley Conference and we've got to compete like a team in the Valley Conference," RHS girls' basketball coach Ryan Clark said. "We didn't approach it the right way. But I give them credit, they definitely responded. We played a second half similar to what we did against SPASH. We played them toe to toe in the second half, made some plays, got some confidence back, so we'll be fine."
Marshfield had three players in double digits, led by senior forward Ema Fehrenbach with 24. Maddie Nikolai had 17 and Jenna Jakobi chipped in 10. Kaly Kostrova led the Hodags with 21 points while Ali Schickert added 13 as Clark said his team played a much better second half.
"Kaly had a real nice game, scored 21 points, and that was with them face guarding her and giving her a lot of attention. She was able to drive, score off the 3. She did a nice job," he said. "Our pressure and our press caused 16 turnovers in the second half and we just started defending smarter and we made a nice plays. We were hitting shots and big Ali inside was a factor."
The game ended a busy stretch for the Hodags, who played five games in six days, going 3-2 in that stretch. The team closes out the regular season Thursday night at Crandon.
"We've got Crandon Thursday," Clark said. "We'll have practice tomorrow in the first time in a week. We've had so many games so we'll keep it fresh and short, but we have to get after it against Crandon and we'll obviously have Antigo in the playoffs on Tuesday."
RHS beats Tomahawk on senior night
The Hodags played Tomahawk for the second time in four nights and, again, had little trouble with the winless Hatchets, winning 55-26 Monday night at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium.
Rhinelander built a 29-10 lead at halftime and cruised in the second.
"We didn't shoot well," Clark said. "The first half, we probably shot worse than we did against Mosinee and then the second half, kind of more of the same. But we played good defense. We worked on our different presses. Tomahawk zoned us the whole time and we faced a lot of zone tonight (against Marshfield), so that was a nice precursor for tonight."
Kostrova led the way with 19 points in her final regular season home game while Schickert added five. Clark said he gave the starters more minutes than he did in the first meeting against Tomahawk because it was their final home contest before the playoffs.
"No. 1 we wanted to recognize our seniors, Kaly and big Ali," Clark said. "We have great team chemistry and I always credit that to the seniors. If the seniors are very welcoming and inviting, then the underclassmen feel very empowered and valued. That's kind of like our team. Great senior leaders."
Brooke Mork had nine points in the win for the Hodags and Ally Seefeldt added eight. In total, nine different players scored and all 13 players on the varsity roster received significant minutes.
"Some of our reserves and underclassmen who split JV and varsity got some good minutes again last night and, for the long-term growth of our program, these are crucial games for them," Clark said.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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