December 20, 2021 at 8:09 a.m.
RHS girls can't keep up with Mosinee
RHS girls can't keep up with Mosinee
That premonition proved accurate. Mosinee forced 32 turnovers and the Hodags never had an answer in a 67-48 loss at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium.
Mosinee scored 31 points off those turnovers as it improved to 9-0 overall on the season and became the lone remaining unbeaten team in the GNC play. Rhinelander saw a four-game winning streak come to an end.
"To me, that was the difference in the game," Clark said. "We can't simulate their speed. We tried to in practice the best we can, but we talked about that over and over and over. I thought the difference in this game would come down to if we could take care of the ball against their pressure, especially if we could limit our live-ball turnovers. Mosinee's very good in the open court in transition."
"I give them a lot of credit," Clark added. "They're a really nice basketball team, but it's frustrating. I think if we could keep it in the half court, I think we can play with them a little bit. But that's not much different than when we had some really good teams here too. We just sped teams up and turned them over and beat them in the full court."
Mosinee scored the game's first eight points and never looked back, eventually taking a 34-16 lead to halftime.
Rhinelander scored the first seven points of the second half but was never able to get the margin back to single digits. Mosinee responded with a 8-0 run and cruised the rest of the way.
Mosinee's big three trio of seniors - Kate Fitzgerald, Jenna Placek and Lexi Freiboth - did most of the damage, scoring 20, 19 and 10 points, respectively. Fitzgerald added 10 rebounds as Mosinee won the battle inside as well. The Indians had a 43-31 edge on the glass, corralled 21 offensive rebounds and held a 52-34 edge on points in the paint.
Overall, though, Mosinee beat Rhinelander at its own game - creating turnovers and getting easy looks on the other end of the floor.
"Mosinee's really quick, but their super aggressive too. They have that perfect combination of speed and aggressiveness. They just turned us over," Clark said. "We'll learn from this one. Like I told the girls, it's still early, but this is our issue. We're not a great ball-handling team. We're not necessarily a super laterally-quick team. I think we've got to be a smarter team, set some good screens and use our minds a little bit."
The Hodags shot just under 40% from the field (19 of 48) on the night. Ava Lamers and Annika Johnson each scored 13 points while Brynn Brzycki had a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds.
"We've done it numerous times," Clark said of having multiple double-digit scorers. "I think we're getting to a point where they expect to score in double figures now, which is only going to make us better as we go on. I'm really proud of that development.
"I thought they battled. I thought their mentality was right. We've just got to be a little bit smarter with the basketball and a little bit stronger."
Audrey Schiek was held in single digits for the first time since the season opener against Crandon, scoring eight points.
The Hodags generated 16 steals and forced 20 turnovers overall with their 1-3-1 trap.
The game kicked off a difficult stretch in the schedule for the Hodags (6-2, 1-1 Great Northern), who made up their snowed-out GNC game at Northland Pines Monday night. Rhinelander will play Reedsburg and Watertown next week in the Watertown Holiday tournament before starting the new year with GNC contests against Medford and Lakeland.
"Reedsburg's No. 1 in state in Division 2. That's going to be a tough battle, but we can learn a lot from that game. Then Watertown's a good opponent. Then we come back and play Medford and Lakeland. We better be ready to lace them up," Clark said.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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