January 28, 2019 at 12:11 p.m.
T-Birds baffle Hodag hoops again
T-Birds baffle Hodag hoops again
T-Bird sharpshooter Jonathan Jurries was hot. The Hodags, collectively, were not. That proved to be too much for Rhinelander to overcome in a 61-53 loss Friday night at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium.
The Hodags (7-7, 4-3 Great Northern) made it interesting down the stretch - zapping a 17-point deficit with 4:30 remaining down to five with 32 seconds left - but it was too little too late for the Hodags who were swept on the season by the T-Birds and former Rhinelander coach Rich Fortier.
"Unfortunately, we only got about five minutes of consistent effort," RHS coach Derek Lemmens said. "That's is what it is. I thought they did a nice job of not giving up but, when you dig yourself a hole, that's just too deep to get out of."
Jurries - who scored 26 points on 9 of 14 shooting in a 74-59 win over the Hodags at Lakeland back on Dec. 7 - came out firing again. He hit his first five shots, including a trio of 3-pointers to help Lakeland take control. He had 17 of his game-high 29 points by the break, while Rhinelander failed to hit a 3 in the first half, as the T-Birds opened a 28-14 lead.
"We, again, just didn't prevent him from making 3s," Lemmens said of Jurries. "We wanted him to put the ball on the ground. He got three really clean looks in the first half, unfortunately. It's just another thing that we have to keep working on. We've got to identify these people. He's way too good of a shooter to lose (our) focus (on him) in those situations. That really got him going."
Rhinelander finally ripped the lid off the basket in the second half, hitting 11 3s over the final 18 minutes, but did very little to trim Lakeland's lead until late.
Junior Howard made a rare four-point play with 2:04 left to cut Lakeland's lead to 53-44, a three-point play by Quinn Lamers, followed by a 3 from Lamers shrunk the gap to 57-50 and a Ross Skeen 3 made it 58-53 with 32 seconds left. Lakeland was able to answer with three free throws down the stretch to salt the game away.
Rhinelander seemed to be in good position early as Lakeland's point guard, and second-leading scorer, Michael Ouimette picked up three personal fouls over the first 4 minutes, 50 seconds of the game. The game was tied when Ouimette headed to the bench, but Lakeland outscored Rhinelander 21-7 the remainder of the first half.
Collin Quade added 11 points for Lakeland. Howard finished with 19 points for Rhinelander and Lamers added 12 off the bench. Bryce Schickert, who came in averaging nearly 11 points per game, was shut out of the scorebook Friday night.
The end result is, in one week's time, Rhinelander has gone from less than a minute away from beating Mosinee and moving into a first-place tie in the GNC, to becoming conference also-rans - three games behind the Indians with five games to play.
"We're all just frustrated right now. Two games in a row we had really great opportunities on our court. When you're not protecting your court, that's not good," Lemmens said. "We really put ourselves, I think, pretty much out of the conference race - which is always that first goal you have as a team. That hurts when you fall short of a goal especially this early."
Rhinelander is now in a logjam for second in the GNC. The Hodags, Lakeland and Antigo all sit at 4-3 in league play. Medford is a half game back in fifth at 3-3.
"We need to keep moving forward. There's still a lot to play for, still a lot of season left and we just need to continue to improve each and every day," Lemmens said. "We have to have enough pride to just keep moving forward. We want to make some noise in the playoffs. That's something we've struggled to do in the last few years. We want to make some noise in the playoffs and we've got one month yet to make that happen. We've just got to keep improving so when that time comes we're ready."
The Hodags are scheduled to be back in action tonight at Wisconsin Rapids.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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