February 20, 2017 at 12:45 p.m.
Hodags rebound against Robins
61-47 victory helps RHS earn 4-seed for WIAA tourney
Hodags rebound against Robins
Matt Reinthaler had 23 points and Owen White had a double-double as the Hodags used a strong second half to knock off Antigo 61-47 Friday night at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium.
It was a big win for the Hodags (11-8, 7-4 Great Northern) prior to Sunday's WIAA regional seeding meeting. A regular season sweep of Antigo (13-7, 7-5 Great Northern) helped the Hodags earn a 4-seed in a top-heavy Division 2 half sectional bracket. That seed gave the Hodags a first round bye and a home game against Merrill March 3.
"I think we put ourselves where I can argue a 3(-seed)," Hodag coach Derek Lemmens said after the win. "Despite this little stretch that we had, we have something to go into this with now."
Lakeland, which had the same conference record as Rhinelander and lost a head-to-head matchup with the Hodags, was seeded third ahead of Rhinelander. Wausau East and Medford were the top two seeds, but Rhinelander has the benefit of playing a team that also has a first round bye in the 11-team regional, a luxury the top three teams do not enjoy.
"Merrill is hot right now and has some big wins, so that first round was going to be a challenge no matter what," Lemmens told the River News in a text message Sunday. "I like that we are both playing our first (playoff) game at the same time."
The Hodags dropped three straight games entering Friday's contest and looked to be on their way to a fourth early in the first half as they fell behind 18-9, were struggling defensively and had White on the bench in foul trouble.
But Rhinelander responded to tie the game on two occasions before halftime. A Matt Arndt 3 gave the Robins a 25-22 lead at the break. From there, the Hodags took control.
Rhinelander was only 6 of 22 from beyond the arc, but made its first three triples of the second to build a 37-32 lead.
Antigo hung around until late by keeping White in check offensively. The 6-5 junior did not score a field goal until 2:58 remaining in the contest, but converted and and-1 with 2:18 to go to put the Hodags ahead 53-46. Rhinelander outscored the Robins 8-1 the rest of the way with a Reinthaler layup with 1:36 remaining serving as the exclamation point.
Reinthaler carried the Hodags in his final regular season home game. He had half of Rhinelander 22 points over the first 18 minutes, and finished the night an efficient 6 of 11 from the field.
"We want to see guys that when the moment is big they are able to step up," Lemmens said. "Matthew, especially, and all those guys, they just stepped up and made it happened."
White picked up his second foul only 2:40 into the contest, both times getting the wrong end of a scrap with Antigo's AJ Kirsch for a rebound. He still finished with 12 points and 17 rebounds in the contest, but had to work to get his points. That forced other players to step up.
"Guys on the bench gave us really good minutes," Lemmens said of his bench, which outscored Antigo's 17-2. "The guys that got in foul trouble, I think they played intelligently and they knew they were in foul trouble and they didn't take risks. They didn't put themselves in bad spots."
Arndt led Antigo with 17 points, Drew Schwarz had 12 and Hunter Bolson added 10. Bolson got loose in the lane for a trio of early baskets, but the Hodag defense clamped down as the night went on and held the Robins to 37.5 percent from the field (15 of 40).
"We just had good basketball tonight and we played better defense, and that's what so important," Lemmens said. "We have to be more consistent defensively because we're not a great shooting time. We have to make every possession matter."
The Hodags will close out the regular season Tuesday night at Wausau West and Thursday night at Lakeland.
Tuesday's match up against the Warriors, coached by Lemmens' younger brother, Nate, is a rescheduling of a game that was postponed Feb. 7 due to freezing rain.
"We've got to continue to finish strong," Derek Lemmens said. "We want to go into the playoffs with momentum and both games have plenty of implications. We want to beat Nate, No. 1 - I want to. Then we want to beat Lakeland. It's another conference team."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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