November 28, 2022 at 8:19 a.m.
Marshfield routs Hodag Hoops in opener
Marshfield routs Hodag Hoops in opener
Last Tuesday night's opener showed there's plenty of room for improvement before the WIAA tournament rolls around in late February.
Rhinelander started slow and never recovered, falling 69-38 to Marshfield at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium.
Marshfield opened the game on a 22-5 run and never looked back. The Tigers led 40-22 at the break and then opened the second half on a 20-3 run.
"We just weren't ready, plain and simple," Lemmens said afterward as his team dropped it third straight game against Marshfield.
Kyle Brown led the Hodags with 12 points and Rhinelander made nine 3-pointers on the night, but an offense full of first-time varsity starters looked stagnant at times and the Hodags shot only 28% from the floor overall (13 of 46).
"We were really nervous about today, in general, but offensively we had a lot of concerns," Lemmens said. "We just haven't found a good flow. We really haven't found our role and I think we're a little too structured right now. We just need to make some adjustments."
Despite graduating four all-conference players from a team that went undefeated in the Wisconsin Valley Conference last season, Marshfield looked like it hadn't missed a beat. Senior forward Luke Lemoine finished with 16 points, Brooks Hinson, Carson Matis and Owen Hanson had 10 points each and the Tigers finished the night 60% from the floor (30 of 50).
"They're more athletic than us. They're bigger than us. I think they're more skilled than us," Lemmens said. "You saw really what happens when a team is better in pretty much every category and executing better on top of it."
Will Gretzinger, the lone returning starter from last year's sectional semifinal squad, had 11 points for Rhinelander, including a runner that got the Hodags within 9-5 roughly 5 1/2 minutes into the contest. But Marshfield answered with 13 straight points from there and eventual stretched the lead to as many as 22 points in the first half.
Brown hit on three straight 3-point attempts down the stretch in the first half as Rhinelander trimmed the lead to 18 at the break. Despite playing limited minutes last year, Lemmens said Brown's knack for shooting 3s was on display during open gyms and summer league play in the offseason.
"That's not a shocker. Kyle's going to be a threat for us. Will Gretzinger will be a threat for us. We have more guys that will be threats," Lemmens said. "A lot of guys are playing their first significant minutes. There's growing pains in this. There's a lot of pressure. They're on their home court. They want to do well. We just didn't play great basketball but, again, it's Game 1 of a 24-game season. We've got a lot ahead of us. We can't dwell on this. We just need to learn from it and move on."
Rhinelander (0-1, 0-0 Great Northern) will get back to work tonight on the road at Crandon. Though the Hodags had to work around the Thanksgiving holiday, Lemmens said there was plenty the team could work on as it continues its non-conference slate leading up to the GNC opener at No. 3 (D3) Northland Pines Dec. 9.
"We've got to get a little structure without our offense," he said. "We've got to get some quick hitters, some things to kind of get flow and get the defense playing behind a little bit, give them a different look. We were very robotic tonight. We didn't play the game. We were just robotic. That's a huge key.
"This is a ceiling team. It's not going to be a team that's going to show up ready at the beginning of the season and wow people, but I think it's a team with a lot of potential. We just have to keep working at it."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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