February 5, 2018 at 2:34 p.m.
Rejuvenated Lady Hodags race by Northland Pines 70-51
Rejuvenated Lady Hodags race by Northland Pines 70-51
Refreshed and refocused, the Hodags looked like a completely different team as they jumped out to a big early lead and never looked back, defeating Northland Pines 70-51 at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium.
After last Monday's loss, Clark said the team would not practice the remainder of the week leading up the Pines contest. He reneged on that vow slightly, giving the team a one-hour shootaround Thursday. Regardless, after three taxing games in five days, a couple of days off appeared to do the trick.
"It's a little unconventional, I suppose. I think it knocked the girls a little off-kilter," Clark admitted. "The strength of this team, more than their talent, is their bond and cohesiveness as a team. I wanted them to realize that by pulling the cord away for a couple days and I wanted them to get fresh, too."
The Hodags rocketed from the gate against Pines, taking an 18-4 lead just over six minutes into the contest and Pines never got back to within single digits the rest of the way. Senior Ally Seefeldt started out hot, scoring 11 of her game-high 26 points in the opening run. The Hodags scored inside, outside and in transition as they forced 18 first-half turnovers by Pines.
"It was a good team win. That first half was exactly what I wanted to see," Clark said. "I thought we had the speed and athleticism on Pines and I wanted to get this game up and down like a track meet. They executed our game plan to perfection that first half."
Rhinelander led by as many as 33 points before turning the game over to its bench with roughly eight minutes to play. Northland Pines, which kept a number of its starters in and switched to a full-court press, closed the game on a 19-5 run.
"They got some turnovers on us, but it's good. These minutes on the court for the young kids is excellent for them," Clark said.
Sophomore point guard Kenedy Van Zile added 21 points for Rhinelander as she and Seefeldt were back to being the formidable 1-2 scoring punch they've been all season.
"They're special guards," Clark said. "The combination of those two makes it neat to coach. Kenedy did a great job in the first half of getting Ally shots and finding her teammates with jump passes, penetration. Then Ally's just a gamer. She came out and knocked down her shot. Her 3-point shot's about a nice as it gets."
Hadley Kruse finished with 13 points for Pines, Jacqueline Smith had 11 and Teresa Kopanski chipped in 10.
Rhinelander was without Brooke Mork (back) for a fourth straight game. Freshman Marissa Martin made her first career start in Mork's place and finished with four points. Another freshman, Rebecca Lawrence, also saw a significant number of minutes on Friday.
"Rebecca and Melissa are great-looking athletes," Clark said. "They're quick and their fast. But Brooke Mork is out and so Brooke was a double-digit scorer for us, but she was also the front of our diamond press. We've tried a couple of different lineups, but the closest resemblance to Brooke is Marissa and Rebecca."
Rhinelander travels to Tomahawk on Tuesday.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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