Hodag Hoops holds off Chargers 55-47 for non-conference road win

WITTENBERG — The Rhinelander High School boys’ basketball team has yet to fire on all cylinders this year but is still finding ways to win basketball games. 

Truman Lamers led three Hodags in double digits with 16 points Monday night, and Evan Shoeder made a pair of key layups down the stretch, as Rhinelander snuck by Wittenberg-Birnamwood 55-47 in the Hodags’ first road game of the season.

Rhinelander (4-1, 2-0 Great Northern) nearly relinquished a 12-point lead over the final 8 1/2 minutes. The Hodags watched the margin slip to two with 2 minutes remaining before scoring the last six points to close out the win. 

“This is us. We’re just struggling to deliver that final blow. We had it to 12 and then we gave up a 3 and then turned it over. We do consecutive mistakes and we just can’t quite pull away,” Hodag coach Derek Lemmens said. “This was our first real road test and we passed. It’s a W. We have yet to say, ‘Wow, that was some really good basketball,’ but, you know what? We’re 4-1. We’re still growing. We’re still learning and we’re happy to do it while getting wins.”

Despite being saddled with foul trouble most of the game, Jett Rogowski scored 27 for the Chargers (2-5, 1-1 Central Wis. East) to lead all scorers. Twelve of those points came after he picked up his fourth foul with 10:49 remaining as he brought the Chargers within 49-44 on a transition layup with 4:16 remaining. A free throw by Jordan Clark followed by basket in the post by Hayden Miller cut the lead to 49-47. 

“He’s really hard to guard. We probably could have tried to do more (to stop him) but on a one-day turnaround, it’s hard to really put much in,” Lemmens said of Rogowski, who’s averaging 20.5 points per game for the Chargers. “Him getting his fourth foul, that could have been a major blow had we gotten some separation and starting putting them away. But we allowed them to hang around and he was able to just keep playing.”

    Rhinelander’s Will Gretzinger takes a contested shot over Wittenberg-Birnamwood’s Boone Schairer during the first half of a non-conference boys’ basketball game in Wittenberg Monday, Dec. 11. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

Rhinelander floundered a bit after taking a nine-point lead with 5:07 to play. The team’s next five possession yielded four turnovers and a missed layup. Lemmens chalked that up to a team that has yet to be in a game this season that was within single digits in the final minutes.

“At the end we really got tight,” he said. “This is one of first games this year experiencing that kind of situation. There are a lot of guys in new roles on the varsity court. That was a good one to get out of the way and learn from.”

Scoreless until that point, Shoeder found open space on the right block and was the recipient of a Truman Lamers dish off a drive for a layup with 1:43 left. After a defensive stop, Shoeder found himself free on the left block for another dish by Lamers that put Rhinelander up 53-47 with a minute to go. 

Lamers secured a rebound off a missed Rogowski 3 and was fouled with 36 seconds left. Though he missed the free throw, Shoeder recorded the offensive rebound. Rogowski picked up is fifth foul moments later, Lamers knocked down the ensuing free throws and the Hodags held on from there. 

“Huge plays down the stretch and he needed that because he’s missed a couple of shots and he’s worrying about that,” Lemmens said of Shoeder’s late contributions. “He’s a good shooter, he’s a good player, he’s young, he’s developing and he’s going to do really good things for us. It was really nice to see him have that moment.”

Rhinelander raced out to a 13-5 lead over the first seven minutes of the half but went cold from there. The Hodags made only one field goal over the final 11:07 of the half as Wittenberg-Birnamwood inched ahead 22-21 at the break. 

The lead changed hands five times early in the second half. The Hodags took the lead for good as Devon Feck found Seth Nofftz for a three-point play with 14:17 remaining Feck later hit a pair of 3s as part of a 15-2 run that saw the Hodags go up 42-31 with 9:11 to play.

James Heck added 11 points for Rhinelander and Will Gretzinger had 10 as, despite the cold spell, the Hodags still managed to shoot 42.5% from the field (17 of 40). Though the Hodags were more patient on offense than the were in a trigger-happy first half against Northland Pines the previous Friday, Lemmens said the patience did not translate to efficiency at times.

“We were patient but not purposeful,” he said. “Even our patience, we over-dribble and by the time we make the pass we need to make, the pass that was there is gone. We saw that high-low action be more open in the second half because we were getting the ball out of our hands quicker. We’ll continue to learn things within this offense, but the big thing that we have to continue to understand is we move the ball, we move the D. When we move the D we can attack the D, and it’s got to be in that order. That starts with passing and moving.”

Behind Rogowski, no Charger scored more than four points as Wittenberg finished the night 42.7% (18 of 42) from the field. 

Rhinelander is back in action tonight, taking on Tomahawk on the road. 

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].