November 27, 2017 at 2:00 p.m.
Lady Hodags go 2-0 at Kislow Memorial
Lady Hodags go 2-0 at Kislow Memorial
The Lady Hodags beat the hosting Lady Jacks 68-52 Friday night and downed Cadott 68-46 Saturday afternoon. The formula in both victories was the same as the Hodags used a smothering press to build a big first-half lead and got double-digit scoring efforts from guards Ally Seefeldt and Kenedy Van Zile.
"Marshfield really exposed us and this weekend we could kind of address those things," coach Ryan Clark said after Saturday's game.
Seefeldt led the Hodags in scoring in both contests, scoring 26 against East and 19 against Cadott. Van Zile had 18 points in the first half Friday night, and finished with 21 against the Lady Jacks. She added a dozen on Saturday while Brooke Mork scored 17 against Cadott.
Clark said the key to both teams was wearing out the opposition and creating turnovers.
"When we play teams more to our ability level, we need to push the tempo and try to outlast them a little bit. Ally, Alayna (Franson) and Kenedy, they're long-endurance athletes, so they can go quite a while," he said.
Rhinelander 68, Wausau East 52
The Hodags jumped out to a 37-26 lead at the break against Wausau East in the opening half and played with a double-digit advantage virtually the entire second half.
East was able to cut the lead to single digits on a couple of occasions, but Rhinelander responded each time.
"We were playing well. We turned them over a bunch own our press. We finished in transition relatively well," Clark said.
Gracie Reineking matched Seefeldt's 26 in a losing effort for Wausau East, but the Lumberjacks had no answer for the Hodags' back court duo of Seefeldt and Van Zile.
"Ally played fantastic. She was all over the place defensively, on the glass rebounding," Clark said. "She had 26 points, hit her free throws and I don't know if she had a turnover - maybe one turnover. She played like a senior, very poised, very aggressive. Kenedy handled the ball well. She looked to attack, looked to score. That 1-2 punch did very well for us."
Rhinelander 68, Cadott 46
The smothering press and easy points in the transition game carried over to Saturday afternoon against Cadott as the Hodags raced out to a 20-4 lead over the first 8:15 of the contest and cruised to a 22-point victory.
While the team primarily focused on its man-to-man press in the first two contest, the team practiced some of its zone presses in the first half and early in the second, before calling it off with a comfortable lead.
"We were quicker and more athletic, so I thought we could press them pretty well," Clark said. "We were able to work on a few different presses. We worked on our 2-1-2. We worked on our diamond press."
After Cadott made a little push to close within 12 at 26-14 with 4:39 remaining in the half, the Hodags answered with an 11-0 spurt over the next 76 seconds and never looked back.
Up by 25 with 10:46 to play, Clark was able to integrate a number of JV players into the lineup who still had one half of eligibility remaining after playing earlier in the day. Freshman Rebecca Lawrence had six points down the stretch for the Hodags.
"They were able to get a little experience at the varsity level, a little confidence," Clark said.
Mork's 17 points came on 7 of 10 shooting while Seefeldt went 8 of 17 from the field in her second double-digit effort after being held to only three points in the opener against Marshfield.
"I thought Brooke Mork had a nice game," Clark noted. "She's got to shoot the ball and I thought she did a nice job shooting from the 3. Ally, again, I think is just playing some solid basketball for us."
Rhinelander's defense forced 28 turnovers and held Cadott to under 25 percent shooting from the field (14 of 57). Rhinelander, conversely, finished just shy of 50 percent from the floor on 30 of 64 shooting.
The Hodags (2-1, 0-0 Great Northern) open conference play this coming Friday at Mosinee.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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