November 30, 2022 at 11:43 a.m.
Hodag Hoops pulls away in 2nd, downs Crandon
Hodag Hoops pulls away in 2nd, downs Crandon
Max Ratty led the way with 13 points and the Hodags forced 29 turnovers to put the breaks on Crandon in a 60-37 non-conference win.
The Cardinals overcame an early 11-point deficit to tie the game with just over five minutes to play in the first half and were down only four points at the break. Rhinelander used pressure to stymie Crandon in the second half. The Hodags opened the second stanza with a 19-4 run and led by double digits the rest of the way.
"Especially the second half, the defense really improved," Hodag coach Derek Lemmens said. "The first half, it just seemed like we were playing in mud, on both ends of the floor. The offense never really got rolling, but the defense is what I was impressed with in the second half. That's what we're going to build on and move forward with."
Rhinelander managed to shoot only 37% from the field and could not find the 3-ball much of the night. The team was 3 of 23 from distance until Kyle Brown hit a pair of triples in the final 2 1/2 minutes with the outcome virtually decided.
The Hodags jumped out to a 13-2 lead over the first 4 minutes, 47 seconds of the contest but then went cold. Rhinelander was just 2 of 14 from deep in the first half and the Cardinals drew even on an Omar Bailey bucket with 5:03 left before halftime.
Brown answered with the second of Rhinelander's triples in the first half to put Hodags up 23-30 with 4:51 left in the half. Rhinelander eventually took a 27-23 lead to the break.
"We just kind of got lazy offensively," Lemmens said. "We just started settling and we talked about that. That was a big emphasis is that we want north-south attack and any 3s need to go from inside-out. We just started floating and chucking and numbers tell a lot of truths. Hopefully we see this and see how it didn't work and we learn from it and attack zones with a little more efficiency."
The Hodags forced 16 turnovers after halftime and Crandon made only one of its first eight shots from the field as the Hodags went on a 15-2 spurt over the first 7:35 of the half. That included two steal-transition layups by junior Will Quinn, the second of which stretched the lead to 42-25.
"Will just came out in the second half and just established things defensively. He did a wonderful job, great energy," Lemmens said. "I thought the best part about it is we made them play fast and our off-ball positioning was good. We were helping helpers. We were stepping up early and that really caused a lot of problems. The guy on the ball made them play fast and the other guys where in position."
Bailey led all scorers with 15 points, including a three-point play that got Crandon within 14 and 46-32 with 6:51 left. James Heck answered with an and-1 on the other end of the floor for Rhinelander and the Cardinals never got closer than 15 points from there.
Ratty, a junior forward who broke into the rotation during last year's deep tournament run, made his first four shot attempts on Tuesday and added eight rebounds to go along with his team-high 13 points.
Brown had 11 for Rhinelander. Truman Lamers scored nine points off the bench, all in the second half. Top returning scorer Will Gretzinger was held to just two points on 1 of 12 shooting.
"Max just needs to continue to be more aggressive, finishing on the rim," Lemmens said. "We still, tonight as a whole, didn't do a great job finishing on the rim, a lot of missed layups. We kind of fade and float when we can really attack.
"We're walking away knowing we shot poorly and we still did some other things in the second half that helped, but we know we have a lot of improvement (to do), especially in this stretch that we're hitting now where we're at Wausau East and then we go to Pines. Right away, we get one of the top teams in the state in Division 3. We can't bring these subpar efforts to that."
Rhinelander (1-1, 0-0 Great Northern) travels to Wausau East this Tuesday before kicking of its GNC slate Dec. 9 at Northland Pines, which currently sits ninth in WisSports.net D3 coaches poll.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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