December 30, 2022 at 8:53 a.m.
Offensive breakthrough
Shots finally fall as Hodags rout Ashland 85-46
Offensive breakthrough
Rhinelander knocked down 11 3-pointers and shot a season-best 59.6% from the field in an 85-46 win over Ashland Wednesday at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium.
Will Gretzinger had 20 points for Rhinelander (2-6, 0-2 Great Northern) and hit on his first three triples as the Hodags raced out to a 12-2 start. Truman Lamers scored a career-high 26 points for the Rhinelander, which had its best offensive output since 2020.
Hodag coach Derek Lemmens said he hopes Wednesday's performance is a sign of things to come as the team prepares for the heart of its schedule.
"We just needed to A, see the ball go through the hoop and B, we needed to get a win, especially at home," he said. "These guys see what they're capable of doing and now that vision, and what they can see becomes what we're chasing every practice. This is what we're trying to duplicate and trying to do night in and night out moving forward."
Between Rhinelander's hot shooting - the Hodags were 19 of 30 from the field and 9 of 13 from 3 in the first half alone - and a spate of Ashland turnovers, the Oredockers never stood a chance. Rhinelander led wire-to-wire and the advantage ballooned to as many as 26 points in the first half.
A Hodag team that came in averaging 46.6 points per game eclipsed that mark, fittingly on a Gretzinger 3, with 1:20 remaining in the first half and led 50-26 at halftime.
Gretzinger had five triples alone in the first half while Lamers and Kyle Brown each hit twice from beyond the arc.
The Hodags finished the game 11 of 21 from distance and finally shot better than 40% from the field after failing to do so in each of their first seven games. Rhinelander had only twice managed to score 60 or more points in a game prior to Wednesday's win.
"It was good to see open, rhythm shots and those shots falling," Lemmens said. "We could just say we had open shots and that's the difference, but we've had open shots all season. I felt like, tonight, guys really shot with confidence and we were really able to knock down open looks, and it was nice to finish in the paint as well."
Lamers, a sophomore, added a spark off the bench in the contest. He hit his first two looks from distance, including a shot that put Rhinelander up 26-8 with 10:15 left in the opening half. Primarily, however, Lamers did it by attacking the basket as he finished 10 of 12 from the floor.
The 26-point total matched the season-long average of his older sister, Ava, who is leading the Hodag girls' basketball team in scoring.
"He was attacking the rim and just being the athlete that he's capable of being," Lemmens said. "He chose the right times to attack. It was great to see Truman (do that). Like I said, these are players that, at the beginning of the year, we said this is what they can bring. We haven't brought that. Now, hopefully, they see that and can duplicate that."
Lamers was not the only player who stepped up on Wednesday. James Heck and Kaleb Winter each scored season-highs, tallying 10 and eight points, respectively. Brown added nine points in the contest.
"I thought the guys shared the ball really well. We had us down for 22 assists to 10 turnovers," Lemmens said. "When you can do a 2-to-1 ratio like that, you're going to win more games than you lose."
Perhaps it's something about playing Ashland that gets the Hodag offense flowing. It was the first meeting between the squads since a wild 95-91 playoff victory for the Hodags at the Miazga Gym March 3, 2020. The Hodags shot better than 50% both overall and from 3-point range in that contest as well. Wednesday's 85 points were the most scored by a Hodag team since that game, surpassing the 84 scored in a two-point home win over D.C. Everest Dec. 22, 2020.
Xander Parduhn paced Ashland (3-5, 2-2 Heart O'North) with 15 points while Antoine Carter added 11 points and 12 rebounds.
Though Ashland shot 41.7% from the field (20 of 48) Rhinelander forced 26 turnovers.
"Overall, I felt like, defensively, we got ourselves out of position a lot, maybe looking for steals a little too much," Lemmens said. "Then finishing plays, offensive rebounds we gave up a lot of them. Those are things we can walk away and hopefully get better at but, overall, I thought our defense did a nice job."
Rhinelander returns to Great Northern Conference play this evening on the road at Medford.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
WEATHER SPONSORED BY
E-Editions
Latest News
E-Editions
Events
August
To Submit an Event Sign in first
Today's Events
No calendar events have been scheduled for today.
Comments:
You must login to comment.