December 8, 2021 at 2:11 p.m.
Lack of size costly for Hodag Hoops in OT loss to East
Lack of size costly for Hodag Hoops in OT loss to East
Rhinelander relinquished a 12-point second half lead as Wausau East rallied for a 79-75 overtime win over the Hodags Tuesday night at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium.
Noah Stroming and Gabe Napgezek each scored 17 points for the Lumberjacks while Dylan Buchberger added 16. The three stand at 6-4, 6-4 and 6-8, respectively, while the Hodags have no one taller than 6-3 on their roster.
"That's what it came down to and that was our fear," Hodag coach Derek Lemmens said. "They just bullied us inside. Defensively, we were late on the weak side ... A lot of it wasn't even the size, it was the lack of execution on our behalf."
Though Rhinelander unofficially had a 39-38 edge on the glass, Wausau East secured the two most important rebounds of the game.
Leading 77-75 with 20 seconds left in overtime, Wausau East's Isaac Rozwadowski missed both free throws, but Napgezek secured the offensive rebound and dished it to Stroming, who was fouled with 15.6 seconds to play. Stroming made the first free throw, missed the second and Napgezek was there again to collect with 12th rebound of the contest.
Napgezek made one of two from the line after that to ice it with 12.1 seconds left.
Rhinelander started the second half on a 14-5 run to go up 46-34 with 11:11 remaining, but fortunes turned as forward Jackson Zettler picked up his fourth personal foul. As Zettler went to the bench, Buchberger - a beefy 6-8 center - returned to the game and proceeded to score 10 of East's next 13 points to trim the lead to 50-47 with 7:35 remaining.
East took the lead on a Stroming three-point play with 4:18 remaining. Zettler then picked up his fifth foul for Rhinelander with 3:30 remaining, shortly after checking back into the contest.
"(Buchberger's) a big body and he's a difficult body," Lemmens said. "Having JZ (Zettler) there a least prevents the really deep touches. When he went out, that really took away a big piece on the defensive end for us.
"We don't have size, and we know that, and the size that we do have got five fouls very quickly. We just have to be better at what we do. We can't make ourselves taller, but we can be better at anticipating. We can be better and more aggressive on our traps. We can get lower and make sure that they have to go over us or through us and they can't just grab that rebound and go right by us."
Rhinelander trailed 63-59 with 24.1 seconds left in regulation, but managed to find a way into overtime. Point guard Jacksen Smith, who scored a game-high 23 points, was fouled as he made a 10-foot jumper with 16.9 seconds left. He made the subsequent free throw to cut the lead to one. Rozwadowski made 1 of 2 free throws on the other end with 14.4 seconds left before the Hodags tied it on a Caleb Olcikas putback with 4.0 seconds left in regulation.
"They didn't let up, didn't give up and multiple times they clawed back," Lemmens said. "We just weren't able to finish. Those are all things we're going to learn from this experience. I was proud of the way they were gritty and found a way to even take it to overtime."
East went back to work inside to start the extra session on back-to-back buckets by Stroming and Buchberger to go up 68-64 and never trailed in overtime.
There were only two lead changes in the contest. East held the early advantage before Rhinelander used an 8-0 run to inch in front midway through the opening half. Rhinelander led by as many as eight in the half, but freshman Jaydan Garrett came in off the bench and scored East's final six points of the half to trim Rhinelander's advantage to 32-29.
Sophomore Will Gretzinger had 12 points for Rhinelander, while Ryan Jamison and Ty Welk each scored nine for the Hodags, who were 42.7% from the field (28 of 63) on the night and just 5 of 21 from behind the arc. Zettler, who scored 20 in a season-opening 74-71 win at D.C. Everest, was limited to six points for Rhinelander.
"Offensively, I thought tonight we really depended a lot on Smith and our offense just didn't have great flow," Lemmens said. "Guys weren't really moving purposefully without the basketball. We're going to look to improve that and make the defense have to work a little harder."
East shot 29 of 60 overall from the field and was 65.7% (23 of 35) inside the 3-point arc.
Rhinelander was called for 27 fouls for a second straight game. While part of the foul situation Tuesday night was a matter of being in catch-up mode down the stretch, the Hodags have had back-to-back games with multiple starters either in foul trouble or fouled out at key moments in the contest. Smith had only six points in the first half after sitting for a prolonged period with two fouls.
"What's frustrating is a lot of the fouls are just foolish. It's a guy has a rebound and we take a swipe at him 84 feet away from the hoop. Those things start to add up," Lemmens said. "We gave a lot of free points in the first half and killed our momentum in the first half with foolish fouls. Then we have primary guys who are also sitting on the bench. Now you've got your secondary guys playing against their (starting) five. We just have to be smarter with the foul situation and a smart aggressive."
The end result for the Hodags is a pair of mixed non-conference results against Wisconsin Valley Conference foes. Lemmens said he chalks up the first two games as major learning moments for a team short on returning varsity talent from last year's 14-6 squad.
"There's always going to be things we can do better," he said. "It's early in the year with an inexperienced team. We're going to move forward and we gained a lot of experience in two games, so now we're ready for conference play."
The Hodags are slated to host Northland Pines tonight at the Miazga Gym to open Great Northern Conference play.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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