February 11, 2019 at 1:50 p.m.
'Grand' Zile: Kenedy Van Zile notches 1,000th career point
Hodags defeat Medford 61-45
'Grand' Zile: Kenedy Van Zile notches 1,000th career point
On a layup with 5:46 remaining in the first half, Van Zile reached 1,000 points in her career. The Hodags' junior point guard finished with a game-high 24 points as Rhinelander defeated Medford 61-45 at Raider Hall.
Van Zile entered the game needing 14 points to reach the milestone, and quickly scored 12 as the Hodags took an 18-11 lead with 8:18 in the first half. Her first look at 1,000 - a 3-point attempt on the right wing - did not drop. A couple of possessions later, Van Zile received a skip pass from teammate Cynthia Beavers along the left baseline, and made a right-handed layup to reach the millennial milestone.
"I wasn't expecting that to be my 1,000th point, but I was really happy to have received the pass from Cynthia," Van Zile said afterward. "She just moved her and she's become one of my best friends. I'm just thankful and grateful for my team, to be able to share this moment with them. My sister (Payton) and Brooke (Mork), I've been playing with them my whole entire basketball career. It was great to share this moment with them."
In a classy gesture, Medford halted the action on the next available stoppage to allow Van Zile to be honored by her teammates and the Hodag supporters in the crowd.
"I was just flooded with emotions. It's just so crazy. I didn't really expect this to happen in my basketball career, and I'm just so happy that it did," she said.
One person not surprised by the accomplishment was RHS girls' basketball coach Ryan Clark who says Van Zile is the best player he's ever coached.
"I think she's the most underrated kid in our state. I know we're in the Northwoods, but (statewide prep sports website) WisSports(.net) hasn't awakened yet to find that we have one of the best players here in Rhinelander," Clark said. "She's really smooth. She can shoot as well as anybody off the dribble. She can get to the rim, she's strong and, more than anything, her IQ is so strong. She's almost a step ahead of me sometimes. She's a great teammate. I'm blessed to have her for another year yet."
Van Zile scored 20 points in the opening half, and the Hodag defense stifled Medford for a long period of time. The Hodags led by as many as 26 points in the second half before Medford made a late run that cut the lead to as few as 13 points with 2:34 remaining.
"We have a tendency to do really well in the first half and then let our foot off the gas a little bit in the second half, and we did it again," Clark said of the only thing to go wrong for the Hodags Friday night. "The concern is you keep doing this, against a team that's pretty darn good, they're going to come back and burn us."
Rhinelander essentially won the game during a stretch in which Medford was ice cold from the field. Katie Phillips hit a 3 for the Raiders to cut the Hodags' advantage to 13-11 with 9:15 remaining in the first half. Medford did not make another field goal until a triple by Desirae Weissmiller just more than three minutes into the second. Rhinelander pushed the lead to 38-18 during Medford's 12-plus minute field goal drought.
"Defense wins championships and is the start of the offense," Clark said. "For a stretch there (it was excellent). The second half there, at the end was not as pretty but, for a good stretch of the game, I thought we executed the game plan well."
Rhinelander responded with an 11-2 run off the Weissmiller triple to take a 49-23 lead with 10:30 remaining in the contest.
Mork added 11 points for the Hodags, who finished the night just less than 45 percent (25 of 56) from the floor. Payton Van Zile had nine points on three second-half 3s. Rebecca Lawrence chipped in eight points.
Weissmiller scored 13 of her team-high 15 points for Medford in the second half. Marissa Fronk and Katie Brehm each added eight as the Raiders were held to 29 percent shooting (16 of 55) in the contest.
The win kept Rhinelander undefeated in 2019, a string of eight straight victories, and put the team one win away from clinching a share of its first conference title.
The first chance to lock up conference came last night against Northland Pines in a game that concluded after deadline. It kicked off a busy final week for the Hodags, who host D.C. Everest in a non-conference game tonight, before taking on Tomahawk and Antigo at home Thursday and Friday.
"We want to run the table. We want to go 12-0 (in the GNC) and not even make it close," Clark said. "It's pretty special and I'm proud of the girls. Our program's built on our players. They've been a great group. I'm happy for Payton and Brooke being seniors. They don't care about the minutes. They just want to win. I think that's been contagious for everybody."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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