December 5, 2018 at 12:52 p.m.
Hodag hoops blown out at home by Marshfield
Hodag hoops blown out at home by Marshfield
Marshfield blitzed Rhinelander over the final 10 minutes plus of the first half and routed the Hodags 72-39 in a non-conference contest.
The loss was Rhinelander's worst at home since the Hodags suffered a 42-point blowout at the hands of Wausau West on Feb. 17, 2009 - prior to when the Miazga Gym was remodeled into its current configuration.
Lemmens did not mince words after the game. The Hodags (1-2, 0-0 Great Northern) were simply dominated on their home court.
"They beat us every possible way you could beat a team," he said. "It's a good team, don't get me wrong, but when you have what we like to think is a strong program and you have a team on a Tuesday night coming into your house and they just stomp your guts in on your home court, that's just painful and there's really no excuse for it. That should never happen. No matter how good Marshfield is, that should not happen. They just beat us in every facet."
Lemmens issued out an apology to Hodags fans for the team's performance Tuesday night via the Hodag Hoops Twitter account.
"Hodag fans, you are the greatest fans out there! We will never let you down like that again," he tweeted. "We are sorry that we put you through that, but understand we are going to grow from this and promise to never let it happen again. Thanks for your continued support."
After a Peyton Erikson triple tied the game at 13 with 10:45 remaining in the first, it was all Marshfield. The Tigers went on a 24-5 run from there, led 42-23 at halftime and never looked back.
The Tigers hit 11 3-pointers in the contest, including eight in the first half, and the Hodags hindered their own cause by committing 35 turnovers.
"We talked about defending the 3-point line. We worked on it in practice, it was a big point of emphasis and we gave up eight 3s in the first half," Lemmens said. "And then we just talk about taking care of the ball and we just threw the basketball away. Not only does that give them opportunities, it doesn't allow us any rhythm on top of it."
Brant Bowman and Anthony Posteluk were responsible for most of Marshfield's damage from the outside. Bowman had six triples en route to a game-high 24 points. Posteluk hit three 3-pointers and added 15 points for the Tigers.
Erikson had 14 points for Rhinelander and was the only scorer in double digits. Drake Martin, who had averaged 19.5 points per game in the first two contests, was held to four points on 2 of 3 shooting.
Lemmens said a Hodag team that graduated most of its starting rotation from last year is clearly experiencing some teething pains early in the season.
"This group is young, we're inexperienced and then, on top of that, we're not disciplined and we're really not the most coachable group. That was probably the most frustrating part," he said. "The things that we talk about, the things that we work on it always just seems to be practice stuff and then, when we get into a game, we're just going to do what we want to do and do our thing. It was really a helpless feeling watching it happen because this group has the potential to be good but, right now, we don't have the discipline and mindset to be good."
The Hodags open Great Northern Conference play on Friday at Lakeland. Rhinelander takes a 13-game winning streak over the T-Birds into the contest - the last 12 of which have come against former Rhinelander coach Rich Fortier. In order to keep that streak intact, Lemmens said his team needs to flush Tuesday's result, learn from its mistakes and get ready to begin its conference title defense.
"Hopefully we see what we are and what we need to be, move forward from this and, on Friday, we come ready to play and start our conference schedule on a good note," he said.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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