January 5, 2022 at 1:22 p.m.
Lady Hodags ride strong first half to road win
Lady Hodags ride strong first half to road win
Rhinelander raced out to a 22-point halftime lead and withstood its scoring lull to defeat Medford 51-33 at Raider Hall.
The Hodags led 40-18 at halftime but missed their first 14 shots to start the second half. Ava Lamers, who led all scorers with 15 points, finally broke the drought with a 3 with 3:54 remaining. Luckily for Rhinelander, Medford had scored all of six points to that stage of the second half.
"We couldn't score. The only positive was we also kept turning them over," Hodag coach Ryan Clark said. "Great win for us. It was probably one of the games going into the year I'd say was a toss up. I didn't know about Crandon and we got that win. I wasn't sure about Everest, got that win and I wasn't sure about playing at Medford and we got that win. It's been a nice little start."
Rhinelander's pressure defense flummoxed the Raiders in the first half. The Hodags went on a 31-7 run from a Lamers putback at the 11:31 mark of the first half to a Megan Brown 3 with 3:10 remaining to take a 35-15 lead.
After employing strictly a 1-3-1 defense much of the season, Clark said the team went back and re-installed some of the presses and traps it used in previous seasons following the Watertown Holiday tournament. All the pressure forced Medford into 43 turnovers on the night.
"We had practiced the last week going back to some of other presses, our 2-2-1 and our 2-1-2 and our 1-2-2. Today we started off with just our regular extended 1-3-1 and after made shots we threw in the press to mix them up," Clark said. "We played a really good first half. We shot the ball pretty well, executed against their 2-3 and then, defensively, we caused a lot of turnovers. That was the difference."
Offensively, it was a tale of two halves for the Hodags, who shot 40.5% (15 of 37) and had only eight turnovers in the first half. In the second half, Rhinelander shot 17.6% (3 of 17) and had 16 turnovers.
"They adjusted and went to their 2-3 and extended it at the half court," Clark said of Medford's defense. "Basically any time the ball was passed, they just sent two kids to it and we really struggled with pressure again. That's kind of been our MO when we get pressure, we revert back to some bad habits."
Fortunately for Rhinelander, Medford couldn't get anything going on the offensive end either. The Raiders were the first team to score in the second half - 9 minutes, 8 seconds into the session - on a Laurissa Klapatauskas runner. The Raiders only managed one more field goal prior to the Hodags first made shot of the second.
Klapatauskas finished with 13 points for Medford as the Raiders were held to 35.1% (13 of 37) from the field.
Audrey Schiek and Brown each scored 10 points in the first half for Rhinelander to give the Hodags three players in double digits. Rhinelander is 7-2 this season when it has multiple double-digit scorers.
"Megan Brown's been practicing the best the last two weeks," Clark noted. "She's just climbing. She hit a couple of huge 3s, had a nice transition basket and, defensively, did a great job. She was our player of the game today."
Brynn Brzycki added eight points and nine rebounds for Rhinelander.
The Hodags (8-4, 3-1 Great Northern) are home tonight to face Lakeland, which defeated Antigo and Tomahawk earlier this week to move 3-1 in the GNC, tied with Rhinelander for second a game behind Mosinee.
The challenge for Rhinelander tonight, containing sisters Juliana and Kristina Ouimette and slowing down Lakeland's uptempo style.
"We'll probably have a few things we can go to but it's pretty simple - we've got to keep Juliana from getting to the rim and we've really got to find Kristina, because she can really shoot it," Clark said. "It will be a tall task for us, but it's at home and a big rival game. It will be a fun one."
Tipoff is slated for 7:15 p.m. at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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