January 24, 2022 at 10:06 a.m.
Ice-cold Hodags dashed by SPASH
RHS shoots 25% in season-worst offensive effort
Ice-cold Hodags dashed by SPASH
Streveler, by himself, scored as many as the Hodags who shot a season-low 25% in a 53-28 loss to the Panthers at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium.
Streveler, a 6-4 senior, scored 14 in each half for SPASH. The Panthers took control with a 23-6 run to end the first half and never looked back.
"He's a handful and then you've got other guys off the basketball that are doing really good things to occupy defenders," Hodag boys' basketball coach Derek Lemmens said. "We're still not good away from the basketball and it's compounded because you lose a little energy when you're not seeing the ball go through the hoop at all. Time and time again, when we're coming up empty, it makes the defensive end seem like that much more of a desperation."
Rhinelander led 6-4 three minutes into the opening half, but did not make another field goal until Jacksen Smith hit a runner with 8:00 left in the first. The Hodags trailed 19-8 by that point. Rhinelander was 11 of 44 from the field overall and went only 3 of 20 from beyond the 3-point arc.
"We took some bad shots, but we took a lot of good shots," Lemmens said. "I feel like this is about five games where we're not making shots, and it's worrisome. I knew at the beginning of the year we weren't going to be a team that fills up the scoreboard. We're not a high-skill team. It's just not who we are. But we have to start making some shots and we can't keep missing the shots we were missing."
The Hodags were 0 of 11 from 3 in the first half. Ryan Jamison finally connected from downtown less than two minutes into the second half. He had all three of Rhinelander's makes from distance as he finished with a team-high 11 points.
Meanwhile the Panthers, and Streveler in particular, seemed like they couldn't miss. SPASH as a team shot 54% (22 of 41). Streveler was 12 of 19 from the field and connected on four 3-pointers as he got to 28 without the aid of a free throw.
"Defensively, it's not like we spent practice working on how do we stop Streveler, but (it's a matter of) being aware of who their top guns are," Lemmens said. "They run some really good stuff and, at the end of the day, they're a better team but we definitely could have done things better."
Friday's loss snapped a season-best three game winning streak for the Hodags (8-6, 4-1 Great Northern) who have now dropped their last 10 contests against the Panthers (8-6, 4-1 Wis. Valley). Rhinelander was still part of the Wisconsin Valley Conference when it got its last win over Stevens Point, Feb. 20, 2009.
Smith added 10 points for the Hodags, but no one else had more than two. That included Jackson Zettler, who was shut out Friday after scoring 20 on Tuesday in a win over Wisconsin Rapids. Zettler was hounded by 6-8 forward Danny Zdroik for much of the night and finished 0-for-7 from the field.
Asked if there was anything that could be done to aid the team's shooting woes, Lemmens said there is no magic pill.
"We'll just continue to take time to get shots up in practice. Here's the deal, you don't become a shooter in season," he said. "You become a shooter in the offseason and we knew coming in a lot of guys didn't put that time in, in the offseason. We're not just going to suddenly become shooters. But we do have a few guys that are shooters that right now aren't hitting, so getting them reps, getting them confident, getting them to hunt their shot. I feel like we're not driving at the right guys. We're not running actions for the right guys either. We've got to do a better job of that because we know the primary guys we want getting shots. We need to work really hard to get them the open looks and get their mojo back."
Zdroik added nine points for SPASH while freshman Baraka Makalin had eight.
The Hodags are back in action on the road this coming Friday night at Northland Pines, an early-season contender for the conference title
"If there's a team in our conference that plays similar to SPASH, it would be Pines with the pressure, with jumping the passing lanes, with a lot of motion, having multiple guys that can make shots and having a big that can step out and make 3s," Lemmens said. "This is a great game for us prior to Pines. Now, can we take what we learned from this game and move forward."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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