January 7, 2021 at 8:45 a.m.
Lady Hodags fade again in second half, fall 52-46 at Lakeland
Lady Hodags fade again in second half, fall 52-46 at Lakeland
Rebecca Lawrence led all scorers with 32 points, but the Hodags faded down the stretch in a 52-46 loss at Lakeland.
The Hodags put up a whopping 78 shot attempts against the Thunderbirds, but made only 19 - a 24.4% effort from the floor. Taking away Lawrence's contributions, the rest of the team was a combined 6 of 53 from the field, and 0 for 26 from 3-point range.
"The story of this game, I think we missed 12 layups in the second half alone," Rhinelander coach Ryan Clark said. "These weren't contested layups. These are just at the rim, point-blank. Then Rebecca hit two 3s and she was the only one. The rest of the team was probably 0 for 20 on wide open 3s. It's just a frustrating one because I felt like we played well.
"It's a hard one to swallow because we had so many opportunities that we could finish and we could never get over the hump."
Juliana Ouimette paced Lakeland with 23 points and gave the T-Birds the lead for good on a 3 with 12:25 to play. It was part of a 9-0 run that put Lakeland up 41-34 midway through the second half.
Rhinelander closed to within 46-44 after a made free throw by Ava Lamers with 1:16 to play, but Ouimette made a contested shot in traffic to push the lead to four with a minute left.
From there Lawrence made two free throws with 38.3 seconds left to bring it back to a two-point game. Lakeland's Jolie Koehler was fouled on the other end and made one of two tosses with 22.6 seconds left and Annika Johnson missed a game-tying 3 for the Hodags with 10 seconds to play. Lakeland made three more free throws down the stretch to ice it.
For Rhinelander, it marked the fourth time in eight losses - and second time this season against Lakeland - the team was unable to close out a win despite leading in the second half.
"They just face guarded Rebecca the last 12 minutes of the game and dared others to score. That really did change the game. Everyone else had a lot of opportunities, but couldn't finish," Clark said. "I thought we grew a little in competitiveness on the court tonight, but we've got to find a way to score ... I don't know if it's a confidence thing or what, but if we can get some kids to knock some baskets in (that will help)."
Rhinelander closed the first half on a 12-2 run over the final 2:01 to take a 28-24 lead at the break. Lawrence, who had 20 points in the first half alone, hit a 3 to tie with 38 seconds left. Megan Brown made a layup off an Ella Schiek steal with 22 seconds left and Schiek scored on an offensive rebound off a missed 3 by Brown just before the buzzer.
Lawrence had a monster statistical night for Rhinelander, adding 15 rebounds and five steals to her game-high 32 points, which came on 13 of 25 shooting.
"Rebecca with 32, she probably actually left six easy baskets on the court, but I can't complain. I mean, she had 32 points and she probably could have had in the mid 40s. But I thought she had a great game," Clark said.
Schiek added 10 rebounds in the contest for the Hodags.
Nearly half of Ouimette's points for Lakeland came from the foul line as the Hodags' held Lakeland's top player to 5 of 15 shooting and forced her into 10 turnovers.
"She had 11 free throws made tonight. She lived at the line. We did a pretty good job on her. She's still going to get her 20," Clark said.
Amaya White and Koehler each had 10 points for Lakeland, which finished the game 38.3% (18 of 47) from the field.
The loss dropped Rhinelander to 2-3 in conference play and 6-8 overall. The Hodags return to action tonight at home against Antigo and then will travel to Tomahawk on Monday night.
"I don't know if the conference (title) is in our grasp this year," Clark said. "This puts us at three losses and pretty much takes us out of the running, but maybe we can be a team that's really tough to beat at the end of the year that nobody wants to face."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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