December 23, 2021 at 8:24 a.m.
Lady Hodags overcome foul trouble, defeat Northland Pines 79-45
Lady Hodags overcome foul trouble, defeat Northland Pines 79-45
Monday night was anything but on the road at Northland Pines.
The Hodags overcame serious foul trouble for a number of starters and pulled away in the second half to a 79-45 victory over the Eagles in a make-up of a contest that was postponed by the Dec. 10 snowstorm.
The Hodags (7-2, 2-1 Great Northern) had to do it on a shoestring, with most of its starting five in foul trouble. Brynn Brzycki and Ava Lamers each had four fouls by halftime while Audrey Schiek had three. Megan Brown picked up her third and fourth fouls less than four minutes into the second half and a Hodag rotation that typically goes only seven deep was forced to extend its bench.
"Every game you've got to learn something from," Rhinelander coach Ryan Clark said. "I think this one they got a definite lesson that we've got to play smart and it's not fun to put yourself in foul trouble, and it also hurts your team as well."
Despite the foul trouble, the Hodags managed to extend the lead through the first nine minutes of the second half. They were up 44-27 when Brown picked up her fourth foul with 14:42 remaining. Rhinelander extended the lead to 57-33 by the time Brown, Lamers and Brzycki checked back into the contest with 9:04 to play.
Schiek, who stayed on the floor with three fouls, and fellow starter Annika Johnson were key, scoring 11 of the Hodags' 13 points during that stretch. Rotation players Lily Treder and Mable Spencer saw extended minutes, while JV call-ups Morgan Van Zile, Leah Jamison and Kelsey Winter platooned to round out the team's five on the floor.
"I give them credit. That second half we played really well," Clark said. "Audrey and Annika kind of settled things down for us and then everyone else, kind of our JV rotational players, they had to step up a little bit and play smart. I thought offensively, in that first seven minutes of the second half, kids were patient, which was to our advantage. Defensively, I think we held them to one point over seven minutes to start the second half, so nice job there."
After playing both halves of the JV game earlier in the evening, Van Zile, Jamison and Winter had only one half of eligibility remaining for the varsity game, which is why they weren't called upon late in the first half as the fouls began to mount.
Brzycki had three fouls by the 9:34 mark of the first half and picked up her fourth with 4:36 until the break. Schiek committed her third with 3:22 left in the half, and Lamers picked up her third and fourth fouls in short order with just over a minute to play.
Though Rhinelander's 1-3-1 defense forced 19 turnovers in the first half, it appeared half a step behind most of the way. Fouls piled up with the Hodags playing out of position.
"Just uncharacteristic, getting out of position, not being in the right spots and getting kind of greedy," Clark said. "Then we're exposed a lot and then just committing fouls. We're not good enough to be having all these kids on the bench."
Rhinelander switched to a 1-3-1 at the start of the season and, through nine games, the Hodags are holding teams to 44.3 points per game, 0.60 points per possession and forcing 31.6 turnovers per game. However, Clark said the defense has taken a step back of late as the team works on other areas of the game.
"It was so strong for us and we knew that finishing and taking care of the ball was a problem and we put a little more emphasis on that and just slipped on our 1-3-1," he said. "We'll learn from it. I think, going forward, two things are important for this team to win. We've got to play great 1-3-1 defense and we've got to be really good at taking care of the basketball and the rest will take care of itself."
Lamers scored nine points once she returned over the final nine minutes of the second half and led all scorers with 21 points. Schiek finished with 18 points, 10 rebounds, six steals and five assists on the night, while Johnson added 14 points.
"Annika probably played our best, start to finish," Clark said. "She didn't get in foul trouble. She was disciplined. I thought she played smart. She hit some big 3s, got to the rim. I thought she had our best game tonight. She's starting to be a consistent double-figures scorer."
Despite the turnovers, Pines shot 46% in the first half as it trailed 42-27 at the break. The Hodag defense buckled down from the floor in the second half, as the Eagles (2-5, 1-2 Great Northern) did not make a field goal until the 10:19 mark and were only 6 of 35 shooting over the final 18 minutes.
Samantha Huelskamp led Northland Pines with 12 points and 16 rebounds, but was limited to 5 of 21 shooting.
Rhinelander travels to Watertown for a two-day tournament this coming week. It opens against the top-ranked team in the WBCA D2 coaches' poll, Reedsburg, on Tuesday and then will face the hosting Goslings on Wednesday.
"We're going to find out what this team is really made of and where we stand, the pecking order," Clark said of the tough upcoming stretch in the schedule.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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