February 14, 2022 at 7:22 a.m.
Lady Hodags fall in overtime to Lakeland
Lady Hodags fall in overtime to Lakeland
That was the case on Friday as the Hodags pushed Lakeland to overtime, but fell short 50-47 in a Great Northern Conference contest in Minocqua.
The performance was better than the Hodags' first meeting with Lakeland, a 66-39 loss in Rhinelander on Jan. 7. But Rhinelander went cold down the stretch, making only three field goals after the 11-minute mark to play in regulation.
It was a similar story for the Hodags, who had a six-point second-half lead the previous Friday at conference-leading Mosinee, before the offense went silent down the stretch.
"We had chances," Hodag coach Ryan Clark said. "I thought tonight was a much better job than last week of continuing to throw punches and looking to score."
Ava Lamers hit a 3 with 41 seconds left in regulation to tie the game at 44 for the Hodags but Rhinelander missed two chances down the stretch to win the game. After a Megan Brown steal, Annika Johnson missed a 3 in the corner and, after an offensive rebound, Lamers was unable to knock down a contested jumper from the elbow as time expired.
Johnson hit a 3 to put Rhinelander up 47-46 with two minutes left in the extra session, but Lakeland's Kristina Ouimette scored in the post with 1:07 to put Lakeland ahead and Cale Quade hit two free throws with 43.8 seconds left to push the lead to three.
Rhinelander had three chances to tie over the final 21 seconds. Johnson missed a 3, and Lamers had two missed triples, including a blocked attempt at time expired.
Lamers, who finished 3 of 19 from the field, also missed a pair of front ends of 1-and-1s in the extra session.
"I told her, 'Hey, it sucks. You're disappointed, but you'll get those opportunities again.' She's only a junior, she'll have opportunities again to help us seal the win," Clark said.
Lakeland started the game on an 8-0 run and though Rhinelander tied the game on three separate occasions, the T-Birds used late 12-7 push to take a 27-22 lead at the break.
Rhinelander responded with its best run of the night, tying it at 31 on an Audrey Schiek free throw with 13:36 to play. Julianna Ouimette scored on a steal to put Lakeland back up by two, before Lily Treder hit a pair of 3s as part of an 8-0 run that put Rhinelander up 39-33 with 11:05 left.
Lakeland responded by scoring 11 of the next 13 points, including a go-ahead 3 by Charley Cleveland with 2:40 left in regulation.
Megan Brown and Johnson each had 10 points to lead a Rhinelander team that shot 24% (19 of 79) from the field. Lamers added nine points and 11 rebounds. Audrey Schiek had six points and 10 rebounds before fouling out with just over four minutes to play.
"We got a lot of open 3s. I think we made seven but we had a lot of open shots. We made enough, but probably kick ourselves (for some of the misses), in the second half especially," Clark said. "They probably blocked eight shots or more inside. That would probably be my one thing, we just didn't finish inside very well, or find a way to make the extra pass when a defender came over."
Julianna Ouimette led Lakeland with 19 points while Kristina Ouimette had 10. The sisters, both of whom are garnering NCAA Division I interest, were both held below their season averages as Rhinelander slowed down the pace of the game.
"We just went to our man-to-man defense," Clark said. "We put Megan Brown on Julianna and she battled really, really hard. Then I put Annika on Kristina. I thought our girls came ready to fight and played hard. We rebounded well."
The Hodags found out their seed for the WIAA tournament on Sunday. The WIAA computers gave Rhinelander the No. 3 seed, behind Mosinee and Lakeland. Clark said he hoped his team would be ready for a third round against either of their GNC rivals, should an opportunity come about in the postseason.
"I want to be the team that nobody wants to play at the end of the year," he said. "The last week, playing Lakeland and Mosinee, I think we've definitely shown that we can beat them, or at least they have to be concerned about us. I like where we're at. The girls are mentally fresh. They're getting better and I'm kind of excited about what we have going right now."
The Hodags will host sixth-seeded Ashland Friday, Feb. 25 in a regional semifinal.
Rhinelander was at Wisconsin Rapids Monday night and will conclude the regular season Friday night at home against Antigo.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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