December 16, 2019 at 1:36 p.m.
Outplay & outlast
Lady Hodags survive home scare, edge Mosinee 70-69
Outplay & outlast
Rhinelander passed its first real test Friday night on its home court, just barely.
Rebecca Lawrence had a career-high 31 points and nine rebounds, and Cynthia Beavers came up with a game-clinching steal in the final seconds as Rhinelander held off Mosinee 70-69 at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium.
Lawrence gave the Hodags (3-2, 2-0 Great Northern) the lead for good on a 3 with 5:13 remaining, but the Hodags nearly squandered a five-point advantage over the final 40 seconds before holding on.
"We knew this would be a really tough team," Clark said. "This is a whole new year. We have three really good players coming back but I think the other teams, they get better. I told the girls too, you're going to get everyone's best shot. You're the defending champions. They're going to give you everything they have. They don't fear you.
"Good, hard win. That would have been a really tough one to swallow if we gave up that lead and lost it. They battled hard, found a way to win, but we can clean up some things."
Kenedy Van Zile added 20 points for the Hodags, including a pair of free throws with 47.2 seconds remaining to put Rhinelander ahead 70-65, but the Hodags fouled Lexi Freiboth with 27.5 seconds left. She made the first, but missed the second. Lawrence came down with the rebound, but was trapped in the corner and turned the ball over. Mosinee (3-2, 1-1 Great Northern) found Kate Fitzgerald for a quick 3 to cut the lead to one with 15.4 seconds left.
Rhinelander beat the press on the ensuing inbound, but Lawrence missed a layup on a 2-on-1 fast break and Mosinee got the ball back with 7.4 seconds left. Mosinee rushed up the court, but Beavers intercepted Fitzgerald's pass at the free throw line to seal the win.
"The last possession, they didn't have any timeouts left so I told the girls I didn't want to let them set something up," Clark said. "I thought we were pretty organized defensively and Cynthia's just around the basketball, where she should be. She poked it away and she gets that steal."
Rhinelander found its back against the wall on a couple of occasions in a game that saw the lead change hands 15 times - including six lead changes on six consecutive buckets early in the second half. Mosinee used a 10-0 run to take its largest lead of the night, 58-49, with 12:04 remaining, before Rhinelander responded. Van Zile sparked the run with back-to-back baskets and then made a 3 to tie the game with 6:12 remaining. Following a stop, Lawrence hit another 3 to put Rhinelander ahead.
"That was huge because usually when you work so hard when you're down in a game like this and you finally tie it up, it seems like you have a letdown defensively again and you just never get it back," Clark said. "Becca's 3 at the low wing by our bench was huge."
Rhinelander continued to stretch the advantage as Mosinee went on a lull of 9 1/2 minutes with only one field goal. Beavers completed a three-point play with 3:49 left and Van Zile found a back-cutting Lawrence for an easy layup to put Rhinelander ahead 68-61 with 3:10 remaining.
While Van Zile, who set Rhinelander's all-time career scoring record Dec. 6 in a win at Northland Pines, has drawn the early headlines, Clark said he had been waiting for a breakout game from Lawrence. The 5-9 junior came in averaging 12.8 points per game. She had 16 points at halftime and finished the night 13 of 20 from the floor.
"She played fantastic. Congratulations to her," Clark said. "She's a wonderful kid, great teammate and she's the reason we won tonight. She was all over the place. She does a good job of finishing, getting to the rim. I'm really proud of her."
Paige Wicklund scored 27 points for Mosinee, and took over for a stretch late in the first half as Mosinee took a 40-37 lead into halftime. She scored 11 straight points as Mosinee closed the half on a 13-6 run over the final 3:47. Wicklund had 23 points by halftime.
"We talked about her before the game that she could win it for them," Clark said. "Then when she had 20-something at halftime, obviously they didn't get my pregame speech very well. We just switched it up a little bit, but Ella Schiek on (Freiboth) and Megan (Brown) on (Wicklund) for a while. Then I put Rebecca Lawrence on her for a little bit. I don't think we did a very good job."
Mosinee lost despite shooting nearly 53% from the floor (27 of 51). Freiboth added 12 points for Mosinee and Fitzgerald had nine. The Indians did much of their damage with aggressive dribble penetration.
"We were so worried about them hitting some 3s that we gave up drives all game long and it was something that we just didn't adjust very well too," Clark said.
Beavers added 10 points for the Hodags as the team's big three of her, Lawrence and Van Zile accounted for all but nine of the team's points. Rhinelander shot 48% from the floor (25 of 52).
Both teams wanted to push tempo with traps and presses. Rhinelander turned the ball over 29 times and committed 20 fouls while Mosinee committed 31 turnovers and had 21 fouls.
"I thought the energy was good, but we've got a lot of things we can learn from this one," Clark said.
Rhinelander travels to Raider Hall this evening to take on Medford.
"I think the conference is wide open. When we play Medford on Tuesday, it will be the same thing," he said. "It will be a real big, strong battle and we're going to have to execute well if we're going to get a win."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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