February 22, 2017 at 1:18 p.m.
Older brother knows best
Derek's Hodags beat Nate's Warriors 63-54 in fourth Lemmens Bowl
Older brother knows best
Owen White had 20 points and the Hodags had plenty of balance behind him as they defeated Nate Lemmens' Wausau West Warriors 63-54 in Wausau.
A Brad Comer 3 at the buzzer gave the Hodags (12-8, 7-4 Great Northern) a six-point lead at the half and Rhinelander opened the second on a 10-3 run to build a double-digit lead it played with the rest of the way.
Tommy Borta had 15 points and Jakob Tordsen had 13 for Wausau West (9-12, 6-5 Wis. Valley) but the Hodags were able to keep the Warriors at bay thanks to an efficient night offensively. Rhinelander shot 49 percent from the field (23 of 47) and committed only five turnovers.
"The guy just kind of executed," Derek Lemmens said of the second half. "We continued to look inside, worked inside out. I thought our defense improved a little bit, but one of the things we did not want to do was fall behind. We wanted them to play from behind, not the other way around. They came out just knowing that they had to have that sense of urgency and we had to get that lead."
West led briefly only twice in the contest, up 13-10 after a Tordsen basket with 10 minutes left in the opening half and 15-13 on a Justin Rager elbow jumper moments later. Rhinelander responded with a 5-0 spurt to take a lead it would never relinquish.
The key scenario came with the Hodags ahead 22-19 with 17.8 seconds left in the half. Rager missed the front end of a 1-and-1. The Hodags got the rebound and worked the ball around to Comer who hit a right-wing 3 as time expired.
"Honestly we did some things well, but I think they missed a lot of shots, especially in that first half," Derek Lemmens said of the first half.
"I thought they had some clean looks and missed some front ends of free throws," Lemmens added. "We were kind of the recipient of some good luck at times, but I thought we did a better job adjusting to their cutting and not allowing those easy touches for Tommy. We made Tordsen have to work and take some tough pull ups. But, early on especially, we were able to stave off some attempts simply by them missing shots."
White scored 13 of his game-high 20 points in the second half, but the Hodags' balanced offense won the night. Reese Flores finished with nine points, Matt Reinthaler had eight, Comer and Junior Howard each had seven, and Reeve Craig and Brad Quade both finished with six.
"They were aggressive tonight and a smart aggressive," Lemmens said of the team's role players. "Junior is such a skilled player - and he's a sophomore. He's got so much skill. It's just that mindset, that aggressiveness, that confidence and he's had games. We're hoping now that the season goes on, we see him in the playoffs with that aggressive mindset because he can do those kinds of things. Reese is the same way. Reese has a lot of offensive ability. He just doesn't have the mindset and the confidence to put it together in a game. He has the ability to do those things. Hopefully them seeing happen and them seeing what we can do offensively when that happens really sparks them to do that more frequently."
Flores finished in transition off a Craig steal and Howard knocked down an open 3 off an Owen White assist as part of the early second-half run that proved to be the difference in the game. Howard made a layup and hit a fadeaway jumper late to help keep the lead around double digits.
Tuesday marked the fourth meeting between the coaching siblings and former RHS starting point guards. Derek is now 3-1 lifetime against his younger brother. Tuesday's game was the first win for the road team since the series resumed in 2013 and was a blowout compared to the first three contests, which were decided by a total of six points.
"We're both competitors," Derek Lemmens said of coaching against his brother. "We both want to win, but we also want the other person to be successful. But we're happy to take (the win) because we're going to have stretches where they've got nice groups coming up and I'll take the wins when I can."
The Hodags close the regular season Thursday night at Lakeland in a battle for second place in the Great Northern Conference. Rhinelander comes in having won the last 11 straight against Lakeland, including nine in a row since former Hodag head man Rich Fortier took the reigns of the T-Bird program.
"No one wants second place, but it's still better than third place," Lemmens said. "So it's still something. It's a conference game. It's against Lakeland so you've got the rivalry and we've got plenty of ammo to come out and be ready. There's plenty of reasons to play. It's the last game of the season before playoffs. Guys know we still have stuff to get better at and the only way to do that is to get in a game and do those things."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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