February 20, 2017 at 12:41 p.m.
Lady Hodags to open WIAA tourney against Antigo
Lady Hodags to open WIAA tourney against Antigo
The Hodags are looking for their third win of the season against the Red Robins as the two Great Northern Conference foes get together in a 8-9 matchup in the WIAA Division 2 regional quarterfinals. The winner gets top-seeded Hortonville on Friday night.
There's an old sports adage that says its hard to beat the same time three times in one season. Hodag coach Ryan Clark said he expects Tuesday night's game to be a battle.
"I think you have to be ready for anything against Antigo. Last year was a stall game with the boys," he said, referencing Antigo's 14-11 victory over the Hodags in the boys' basketball regional semifinals last March. "I think what they'll do is they'll try to find some advantage, but the one thing we worked on (Thursday in a 70-59 win at Crandon) is, up until now, we only pressed on makes. (Thursday) we pressed on misses as well. We didn't execute very well on it necessarily, but we were able to process it."
Which team dictates the tempo seems to be a key to the contest. The Hodags like to get up and down the court in transition, while Antigo likes to grind in the half court, both offensively and defensively. That shows in Antigo's statistics on the season. The Red Robins are sixth in scoring offense in the GNC (46.4 points per game) and fourth in scoring defense (48.5).
"We just got to pressure them and keep the possessions up," Clark said. "I think they're going to try to slow it down. Antigo, they're going to come in here and battle. They work really hard on the offensive boards. They'll be a good battle for us but one that we need to win for sure."
Antigo tried to slow things down in the first meeting between the schools this season Dec. 8 at Sheldon Fieldhouse. The Robins led 29-23 with just over six minutes to play before the Hodags went on a 18-6 run late to win it 41-35.
The Hodags used another late run in the rematch, going on a 21-4 spurt over the final 11:20, to win 58-37 Jan. 24 in Rhinelander. Ally Seefeldt scored a career-high 24 points in that game for Rhinelander while Kaly Kostrova added 15.
"Against their 1-3-1, we're going to have to move the basketball, find the open spot and Kaly and some of the other ones are going to have to knock down some shots as well," Clark said.
Antigo enters the tournament with three players providing the majority of their scoring. Laurissa Belott averaged 11 points per game during the GNC season, Morgan Hotchkiss - who led the conference with 17 made 3-pointers - averaged 10.8 points per game and Hannah Zenkovich averaged 9.8 points per game.
The Robins are the second-best rebounding team in the conference. Allison Kondzela pulled down 8.5 boards a contest for the Robins while Zenkovich averaged 5.6 rebounds per game.
Tuesday's playoff game tips off at 7 p.m. at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
Comments:
You must login to comment.