December 7, 2020 at 8:19 a.m.
Lady Hodags take down Northland Pines, Three Lakes
Lady Hodags take down Northland Pines, Three Lakes
The Hodags downed Northland Pines at home 67-30 on Friday night and, roughly 18 hours later, defeated Three Lakes 52-43 in a non-conference road game.
Late first-half runs and strong defense propelled the Hodags in both instances. Pines trailed by only 1 point six minutes in Friday night before the Hodags went on a 24-4 spurt. On Saturday, the Hodags crawled out of an early 11-0 hole to take a 22-20 lead at the break.
Both Northland Pines and Three Lakes shot less than 30% from the field against Rhinelander.
Rhinelander 67, Northland Pines 30
The Hodags switched their pressure roughly six minutes into Friday night's contest, which put Northland Pines back on its heels.
Coach Ryan Clark said switching to a three-quarter court trap, creating less of a gap between Rhinelander's guards and posts defensively, put the brakes on the Northland Pines offense. The Eagles were within one at 12-11 with 12:07 remaining the first half.
Rhinelander prevented Pines from recording another field goal over the next 10 minutes, 8 seconds as the lead ballooned to 21.
"Pines came out and exploited us a little bit in the first four or five minutes, and then I thought we adjusted pretty well as to how we wanted to press them and did a really good job of our vertical traps," Clark said. "That got us going, and then we hit some shots and I think we just wore them out as well. We're in really good shape. I think conditioning is a factor when we play them."
Sophomore Ava Lamers also provided a spark off the bench. She started the Hodags' decisive 24-4 first-half run with a 3 from the top of the key and edged it with a layup. She scored 14 of her career-high 18 points in the first half of the contest.
Rebecca Lawrence added 17 points for Rhinelander and Brynn Brzycki had a double-double with 16 points and 14 rebounds.
"Brynn had a good game, Rebecca got going a little bit, but Ava was kind of our spark plug. She was all over the place," Clark said.
Freshman Nora Gremban led Northland Pines with 12 points, but was 3 of 20 from the field. Overall, Northland Pines shot just 17.5% (11 of 63) against the Hodags.
"We turned them over almost 30 times, but the key was they would take quick shots, 12-to-17-foot shots and we would live with those as long as we could rebound," Clark said. "They took a lot of quick shots. We were in position. We just boarded and went the other way."
Rhinelander 52, Three Lakes 43
The Hodags relied on their defense again on Saturday as they reboundedd from an early deficit. Lawrence scored 27 points and the Hodags held the Bluejays to 29.8% shooting as they rallied from behind for a nine-point road win.
Things couldn't have started much worse for Rhinelander on Saturday. The Hodags first nine possessions resulted in seven turnovers and three missed shots. Meanwhile, a couple of early Taylor Kolling 3s put Three Lakes up 11-0 just 6 1/2 minutes into the contest.
Lamers got Rhinelander going with a 3 that sparked a 10-0 run as Three Lakes went nearly nine minutes without a basket. Lawrence gave Rhinelander its first lead at 14-13 on a basket with 4:40 remaining in the half and made a driving layup with five seconds left to give Rhinelander a 22-20 lead at the break.
Lawrence scored 10 of Rhinelander's first 12 points in the second half, as the Hodags edged the lead to 34-26. When Three Lakes turned its emphasis to stopping Lawrence, Brzycki recorded four straight buckets to put Rhinelander up 42-31 with 8:02 remaining.
"I liked how we battled, hung in there. Rebecca had a nice game for us. Ava again had a nice game," Clark said. "When they went box-and-1 taking out Rebecca, Brynn went to work and I thought that was a big turning point right there. They tried to take away Rebecca and Brynn was assertive. She's really doing a nice job this year."
Lawrence picked up her fourth foul midway through the second half, but the Hodags held strong. Lamers hit a 3 and then Annika Johnson scored on a layup in transition to put Rhinelander ahead 47-31 with 7:13 to play.
Brzycki added 10 points and eight rebounds and Lamers had nine points off the bench as the Hodags shot an even 50% from the field (20 of 40). Kara Sowinski had 11 points to lead Three Lakes while Mari Szews added eight points and eight rebounds.
Rhinelander (3-2, 1-1 Great Northern) travels to Shawano tonight for a non-conference contest.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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