January 15, 2018 at 1:02 p.m.
Seefeldt scores 28 as Lady Hodags race by Robins
Seefeldt scores 28 as Lady Hodags race by Robins
Up only five at the time, Seefeldt scored a basket just under 3 1/2 minutes into the second half. That sparked a 21-point second half for the senior guard as the Lady Hodags defeated Antigo 66-53 at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium.
Seefeldt finished with a game-high 28 points and was 7 of 10 from the field in the second half as she helped keep a scrappy Antigo team at arm's length.
"She plays so tough," Hodag coach Ryan Clark said. "I think her senior leadership is the key to our basketball team. It shows that the toughest kid in my program has the biggest game on a tough, physical night."
The game was a battle of vastly different styles. Rhinelander's pressure forced Antigo into 37 turnovers, but the Robins (1-12, 1-5 Great Northern) held a 43-29 edge on the boards and wore the Hodags (8-6, 5-1 Great Northern) down at times in the half court.
"We knew they were going to be really physical," Clark said of an Antigo team that committed 28 fouls in the contest. "They're not dirty at all, they just play really hard and they're really aggressive kids. All their players inside are aggressive and their guards are aggressive. We knew that would be their style."
Free throws helped carried Rhinelander as the Hodags finished 24 of 34 from the stripe. Sophomore Kenedy Van Zile was 12 of 18 from the line individually as she finished with 18 points.
After trading buckets early in the game, Rhinelander went on a 16-2 run to go ahead 23-10 with 4:10 remaining in the first half, and were up 28-14 after a Seefeldt layup with 1:05 remaining.
Antigo responded with an 11-2 run that cut the lead to five with 14:30 to play in the second.
Seefeldt made a layup and a 3 on back-to-back possessions to double the lead. The lead was still 10 when Seefeldt scored twice more to spark an 8-0 push that extended the lead to 47-29 with 8:23 remaining.
Antigo shot just over 46 percent from the field (23 of 49) but struggled at times to get the ball into the half court. The Robins committed 21 turnovers in the first half alone.
"That was probably the key, we forced a lot of turnovers," Clark said. "Not so many live-ball turnovers, I guess we had a few of those too, but that was probably the difference."
Van Zile had 10 rebounds to go along with her 18 points for Rhinelander. Brooke Mork chipped in 10 points as the Hodags shot just under 40 percent (20 of 52), while going only 2 of 19 from 3-point range.
"We just settled for a lot of outside shots. Part of it is they were sinking in a little bit, but I told the girls it's one thing if we drive and kick, or work inside-out we were just kind of swinging it around the perimeter and settling for shots," Clark said.
Morgan Hotchkiss scored 14 of her 16 points in the second half to help keep Antigo within shouting distance until late. She converted a 3-point play with 3:47 remaining that cut Rhinelander's lead to 52-44, but the Hodags answered with free throws by Van Zile and Alayna Franson to restore the double-digit advantage.
Lily Nagel added 12 points and 10 rebounds in the loss for Antigo.
Rhinelander hits the halfway point of the conference season in second in the GNC, a game behind Lakeland.
"It gets tough second time around. Teams scout you. They know what you do. It's going to be a battle," Clark said. "We'll play Lakeland in a couple of weeks, but Mosinee could beat us, Medford could beat us, Antigo could beat us there. Long season, we've just got to go one game at a time."
The Hodags will host Mosinee to kick off the second half of the conference season on Friday, but first Rhinelander will entertain Merrill in a non-conference contest tonight at the Miazga Gym. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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