December 30, 2021 at 10:13 a.m.
Lady Hodags no match for No. 1 Reedsburg in 80-26 loss
Lady Hodags no match for No. 1 Reedsburg in 80-26 loss
The Hodags were no match for the Beavers, who scored the game's first 27 points and rolled to a 80-26 victory in the Watertown Holiday Tournament.
It was the Hodags' most lopsided defeat since an 87-27 loss to then No. 1 (D2) Hortonville in the WIAA sectional semifinals in 2020. Hodag coach Ryan Clark said this Reedsburg team is in the same echelon in terms of the toughest teams he's faced in his nine years at Rhinelander.
"I just think those two teams are just at another level," he said. "Hortonville had a bunch a Division I players. Reedsburg, their best player's going D-III, but they're all just really solid. The 1-3-1 looks good against certain teams but they picked us apart like nothing today. It's the first team we've had that screened the backside of that 1-3-1 really well. They pass the ball extremely well. They make the extra pass and then they can just all shoot the ball."
Reedsburg's leading scorers on the season, Sydney Cherney and Mahra Wieman, each scored 21 in the contest. Rhinelander's leading scorer, Audrey Schiek, was limited to the role of spectator for much of the game. She left just 4:29 into the contest after Reedsburg's Macie Wieman made head-to-head contact with her on a rebound. Schiek was held out of the remainder of the game as a precautionary measure.
"Losing Audrey's a big loss just because we don't have much depth. When we're at full strength, that gives us our best chance," Clark said.
The Hodags brought only seven players with them to the tournament, opting to have their split-time varsity/JV players stay back to play in a JV tournament in Elcho. That meant, with Schiek sidelined, Rhinelander had only one sub for much of the contest.
Reedsburg was already up 12-0 when Schiek left the contest, and that lead ballooned to 27-0 before the Hodags made their first basket, a Brynn Brzycki finish through contact with 9:32 remaining in the first.
"In the first half when they pressed us, we didn't see down the floor very well and turned it over," Clark said. "Then I thought we didn't get back on defense very well, so we gave up a lot of easy baskets. Now they run the floor well and they pass it ahead really well. They're so good in transition."
Reedsburg took a 51-8 lead into the halftime and continued to extend the lead, going up 77-15 with just under nine minutes to play on back-to-back Grace Bennish 3s before the starters came out and the running clock rule went into effect.
Rhinelander scored the final 11 points of the game against Reedsburg's reserves.
The Beavers finished the game 46.8% from the field on 29 of 62 shooting, including 11 of 24 beyond the 3-point arc. Sydney Cherney had 10 rebounds to go along with her 21 points. Bennish finished with 14 on 4 of 4 shooting from deep and Trenna Cherney added 12.
Ava Lamers led Rhinelander with 10 points, including six in the Hodags' end-of-game spurt. Annika Johnson had seven for Rhinelander.
"I thought Annika looked very comfortable today, even though she had some mistakes, I thought she was mentally in the game," Clark said.
Clark said Tuesday's game was an eye-opener for his squad.
"They're just really skilled basketball players, and very physical, too," he said. You try to drive on them, they don't give up anything. They take every spot on the court that they want and are just really strong. I don't know how many times they just took the ball out of our hands or bumped us off our route.
"There's a lot of great teams here. We just need to do a better job of finding a way to compete against these teams, even if we don't beat them, make it respectable and make it close for as long as we can."
The Hodags played Watertown Wednesday afternoon in a game that concluded after press time for today's edition. Rhinelander will jump back into Great Northern Conference play this coming Tuesday on the road at Medford.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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