January 6, 2020 at 12:55 p.m.
Still the team to beat
Lawrence's late buckets carry RHS past Lakeland 72-69 in battle of GNC unbeatens
Still the team to beat
"I thought that if I could get a shot off, it would help us," she said.
Lawrence was right. Her off-balance shot went in and drew a foul to give Rhinelander the lead, and the Hodags held on down the stretch to defeat Lakeland 72-69 to win a battle of the two remaining unbeatens in the Great Northern Conference at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium.
Lawrence, who scored a game-high 24 points to go along with 10 rebounds, converted the go-ahead basket with 1:23 remaining. She added a steal and layup in transition with 42.5 seconds left to account for the final margin.
The Hodags missed on two offensive chances to make it a two-score game, leaving Lakeland with an opportunity a tie at the end, but Ella Schiek blocked Julianna Ouimette's 3-point attempt and the ball bounced out of bounds as time expired to give Rhinelander (6-4, 4-0 Great Northern) sole possession of first in the GNC, and its 22nd consecutive conference win overall.
"We just keep battling," Rhinelander coach Ryan Clark said. "I think their poise under pressure is very good. I think they're a pretty good team to know that it's a 36-minute game, lot of runs ... They're just very poised, very relaxed and they just battle."
Up 68-64 with 3:15 to play following a go-ahead layup by Kenedy Van Zile and a 3 by Cynthia Beavers, Rhinelander felt the heat as Lakeland rallied. A three-point play by Ouimette with 2:47 remaining cut the lead to one. On Lakeland's next possession, Ouimette lobbed a pass to Camille Quade for the go-ahead basket with 1:50 to play.
It was the last basket Lakeland would make. The T-Birds final four possessions ended with three turnovers and Ouimette's missed 3 at the horn.
"I think we thrive more on the intensity," Lawrence said. "Once it got more intense toward the end of the game, we started to turn them over more and get the bigger play that we needed."
Rhinelander, which came into the night shooting only 26.1% from 3-point range, came out on fire Friday night. The Hodags hit their first six 3-point attempts, and 11 triples overall in the contest.
"We have not shot well, so to make the first six was incredible and to get 11, that kind of reminds me of last year," Clark said. "I thought last year we won because we started hitting 3-point shots. If we can do that with our press, and our ability to get to the basket, I think we're pretty tough to stop."
Rhinelander raced out to a 22-13 lead with 12:34 remaining in the opening half, thanks to those early 3s, but Lakeland responded with a 13-0 run late in the first half to take a 43-39 lead going into the break. The T-Birds shot 60.7% from the field in the first half as they rallied to take the lead.
"We hit those 3s right away an I think we got offensively-minded. We were really hitting the shots, but I think our defense suffered from that," Clark said. "I think we wanted to try to keep outscoring them. They got layup after layup."
Lakeland's Camille Quade hit a 3 to open the second half to give the T-Birds their largest lead of the game, but Rhinelander responded with a 9-2 push that included a driving layup by Beavers to tie the game at 49 with 13:12 remaining.
The lead changed hands nine times in the second half as the teams battled down the stretch.
Van Zile scored on a layup to put Rhinelander up 57-56 with 7:42 left, but Amaya White answered with a spin move for a layup on the other end, sparking a mini 5-0 run for Lakeland. The Hodags scored the next two baskets, including a go-ahead 3 by Beavers with 5:23 left. Ouimette converted a three-point play with 4:56 left to put Lakeland ahead 64-63. Rhinelander answered with a 5-0 spurt on a basket by Van Zile and another 3 by Beavers, who was 4 of 5 from beyond the arc in the contest.
In the end, Rhinelander's big three proved greater than Lakeland's big four. Both Lawrence and Beavers (19 points, 10 rebounds) had double-doubles for Rhinelander and Van Zile had 23 points. Abby Parris scored 18 of her team-high 22 points for Lakeland in the first half. Ouimette finished with 19 points, White chipped in 14 and Quade had 10.
"They had their moments and I thought they played pretty well," Clark said. "Kenedy hit those 3s right away early, which she's been kind of struggling a little bit from the 3-point line. I think that gave her a little confidence on the outside. Cynthia hit those huge 3s in the second half, and she's done that before too. It seems like, if we're down two, Cynthia's going to hit the shot. Rebecca had that one, kind of over the head and-1 play. I don't know how she did it. I was complaining that they kind of bumped us before that and they didn't call anything, then the ref said, 'Well, I think you'd rather take that one anyway.'"
Both teams were efficient offensively. Rhinelander finished the night 45.9% from the field (28 of 61) while Lakeland was 50.9% from the floor (26 of 53).
The Hodags have now won two conference games on their home court by a total of four points.
The rematch against Lakeland will take Feb. 11 in Minocqua and Rhinelander knows in cannot let off the accelerator in the meantime.
"We're going to keep pushing it. We know all the teams are going to give us their best shot the second round through," Lawrence said. "But I think we kind of thrive under pressure. So that just helps us when we know that every team is trying to give us their all."
Added Clark, "I think both teams are legit conference contenders and we just have to keep getting better. We know when we play them again, we'll have to make some adjustments, because they'll be even tougher on their home court."
Rhinelander returns to action tonight, taking on D.C. Everest in a non-conference contest in Weston.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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