January 17, 2018 at 2:00 p.m.
Hodags continue to roll
Flores' season-high 14, strong defense lead RHS past Medford 50-37
Hodags continue to roll
The Hodags overcame a relatively cold shooting night by playing some strong defense as they defeated defending Great Northern Conference champion Medford 50-37.
"These are not easy wins," said Hodag coach Derek Lemmens, whose team reeled off its 11th straight victory. "Tuesday night, finals (week), in Medford, a tough place to play, against a team with a winning pedigree. It was a big win."
Rhinelander shot 42 percent on the night (18 of 43), but held the Raiders to only 17 second-half points and pulled away during the second half.
Senior Reese Flores was immune from Rhinelander's shooting woes. He scored a season-high 14 points on a 4 of 6 night from beyond the arc.
"We were cold from the field," Lemmens said. "Reese Flores came out and he was knocking down 3s, but other than that, the team as a whole struggled. You have those nights shooting and our defense allowed us to kind of stay in it."
Medford tried to make life difficult for Hodag standout Owen White, sending a number of double teams the 6-6 senior's way. Of Rhinelander's starting five, the numbers suggested that Flores was the player the Raiders could most afford to leave open. He came into the contest averaging only 2.5 points per game, but Flores hit three triples in the first half alone and had 11 points by halftime as the Hodags led 23-20.
"They tried not guarding someone," Lemmens said. "They tried sending a player to double the post and Reese doesn't have the stat line right now, so he was the one that was picked. He was ready when that opportunity came."
White still finished with 13 points and 15 rebounds for the Hodags, and started the second half with an alley-oop dunk that sparked a 10-0 run that pushed the lead to 13. Rhinelander played with the double-digit advantage the rest of the way.
"Owen White had a great presence inside, we just didn't get it in there efficiently enough," Lemmens said. "Early on we fired a lot of 3s. I thought as the game progressed, we looked inside more and the offense got a little better."
Lemmens also said the Hodags ratcheted down defensively in the second half, though Medford scored only three fewer points than it did in the first half.
"They missed some shots, especially early," he said. "Our defense early on was not good. They got whatever they wanted. We were just kind of stale. We weren't really moving effectively. We were just taking shortcuts and being lazy. The second half, they were a lot more aggressive, dictated tempo better and the second half Medford was forced into bad shots more than they were in the first half where they just missed open looks."
Medford's leading score, Cam Wenzel, led all scorers with 15 points, but did most of his damage from the foul line. Dain Strick and Doug Way each had six points for the Raiders.
Brad Comer was Rhinelander's third scorer in double digits with 12. The Raiders held Junior Howard, who came into the game averaging nearly 13 points per game, scoreless. Howard was saddled with foul trouble and finished with four fouls.
The win moves Rhinelander a game ahead of Mosinee in the GNC standings. The two teams will square off Friday night at the Mosinee High School gym to conclude the first half of the conference schedule.
"They're going to pressure us just like Medford did and we have to be better with being stronger with the ball, beating the pressure and getting into our offense," Lemmens said.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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