January 14, 2021 at 7:59 a.m.
Lady Hodags win back-to-back
Rhinelander knocks off last, first place teams in GNC on consecutive nights
Lady Hodags win back-to-back
"He said, 'You know you're going to be put in this situation again.' I just had to come through this time for my team," she said.
To say Lawrence came through would be an understatement. She scored 34 points, including a pair of late free throws when the Hodags needed them most, as Rhinelander knocked off GNC co-leader Medford 41-38 at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium.
It was Rhinelander's third straight win as the team got back over .500 at 9-8 on the season. A night earlier the Hodags dispatched last place Tomahawk 70-30 on the road.
Lawrence's makes from the foul line came at the most critical time. The Hodags had missed five straight fouls shots as the Raiders cut what was a 13-point deficit to one with 6.7 seconds remaining. Lawrence calmly made both free throws and gathered a rebound as a last-ditch 3 to tie by Bryn Fronk went off the mark in the final seconds.
"We haven't been the best second half team and we knew, at halftime, we had to come out and keep going," Lawrence said. "That's where my mindset was at. I just had to make them and we had to get a stop on defense down there."
It was a nearly singular offensive effort by Lawrence that helped the Hodags pull away. She had a personal 13-2 run to start the second half as Rhinelander went ahead 33-20 at the 9:24 mark. While the Hodags have looked for second and third scoring options this season, Tuesday was a night to let Lawrence go to work against the Raiders' defense.
"Our offensive system is geared around our personnel. It wouldn't do us any good to have a balanced offense when your best player can really light it up and score," Clark said.
The Raiders switched to a trapping 1-3-1 zone that flustered the Hodags' offense and Medford made a 12-2 push to close within three at 35-32 with 4:05 remaining. A pair of free throws by Lawrence and a layup got the lead back to seven with 2:14 to play, but Larissa Klapatuskas answered with a quick layup and Rhinelander began to misfire from the foul line as the lead shrunk until a Martha Miller jumper with 6.7 seconds left trimmed the lead to one.
Rhinelander caught Medford on an off shooting night. The Raiders finished 33% from the floor and were 0 for 15 from beyond the 3-point arc. Bryn Fronk paced Medford with eight points while Marissa Fronk, the Raiders' leader scorer, was held to six.
Ella Schiek chipped in a team-high seven rebounds for Rhinelander and drew the defensive assignment on Marissa Fronk most of the night.
"We just knew that we had to play defensively and offense would kind of flow with that. We all just talked with the team beforehand," Lawrence said. "Ella had the role to face guard her and everyone else had to get rebounds and help Ella out."
Rhinelander's win, coupled with Mosinee's win at Lakeland, flipped the conference race again. Mosinee (5-1) is now a half game up on Medford and Lakeland (5-2) and a game ahead of Rhinelander (5-3).
"I know we've turned the corner," Clark said. "They getting better. Their toughness is great. They can turn teams over. I think they've found their identity, what they need to do to win. Medford's a great team. We flipped the conference again for everybody. I don't know if we're in the conference race. We're going to fight til the end, but I think we should be a very tough team to beat come playoff time."
Rhinelander 70, Tomahawk 30
The Hodags took care of last-place Tomahawk Monday night, using three double-digit runs to secure a comfortable 70-30 victory at Hatchet Fieldhouse.
Rhinelander never trailed in the contest, bolting out to a 21-4 lead over the game's first 10 minutes. The Hodags closed the first half on a 17-0 run to take a 44-10 lead at the break and put the game away with a 14-2 run that saw the margin reach 45 points midway through the second half.
"We won the game. I thought we played relatively OK, but the goal was to get a lot of people some playing time," Clark said. "You just want to see the kids be aggressive, share the basketball. We got a lot of kids playing time, spread the wealth a little bit and it was nice to see other kids scored as well."
Lawrence scored 17 of her game-high 29 points in the first half. Senior Kat Metropulos started and scored a season-high 10 points, while junior Annika Johnson added a season-high 12 points off the bench to go along with seven rebounds.
"Kat knocked down a couple of 3s and I thought she played pretty confident. She had that one finish where she got a little bit of a bump and went up strong," Clark noted. "Annika, she's got to get comfortable scoring and she's looking to score. She hit that 3 right away early in the game. She had that drive at the end of the game, which was a nice attack. She'll do all the glue stuff and stuff that doesn't show up on the stat line, but she's got to score for us going forward, especially next year. So it's nice to see here getting some point."
The Hodags shot 40.3% from the field as Ava Lamers and Megan Brown each added eight points to the cause. Tomahawk had more turnovers (41) than shot attempts (38) as they were led by Haley Liebelt with nine points and eight rebounds. Ella Genelin added eight points.
Milestone approaching
Lawrence entered Thursday's non-conference game at Crandon, which concluded after deadline for this edition, needing only 21 points to reach 1,000 in her high school career. The senior was averaging 23.6 points per game on the season following Tuesday night's win against Medford.
"You look at Rebecca and if you really break down the stats, she's having an incredible season, and being the scorer for us and carrying the load," Clark said.
If Lawrence was unable to reach the milestone Thursday, her next opportunity would come at home this coming Tuesday against Ashland.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
Comments:
You must login to comment.