Hodag Hoops blitzes Tomahawk 69-26

TOMAHAWK — Even down a couple of starters, the Rhinelander High School boys’ basketball team went out and did exactly what it needed to do on Friday night against an overmatched Tomahawk squad. 

Will Gretzinger scored 25 points, Caden Sieker added a double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds, and the Hodags cruised to a 69-26 victory in Great Northern Conference play at Hatchet Fieldhouse.

The Hodags (5-1, 3-0 Great Northern) were without starting guards Will Quinn and Seth Nofftz, who were both scratched due to illness. That didn’t seem to matter as the Hodags raced out to a 29-4 lead and eventually took a 47-8 advantage to the break. 

“I thought guys did a great job executing, being focused,” Hodag coach Derek Lemmens said. “(We) kept the game simple and didn’t force things to happen. We just let it happen, both offensively and defensively, and the bench had great energy. It was really fun to see, especially knowing two starters are home sick.”

Tomahawk (1-4, 0-2 Great Northern) shot just 4 of 26 from the field in the first half and committed 12 turnovers. That led to plenty of transition opportunities for the Hodags, who continually pushed the pace. Rhinelander scored 16 straight following an early 2-2 tie to take a lead it would never relinquish. A putback by Sieker made it 29-4 with 7:38 remaining in the half. After Tomahawk answered with a second-chance bucket, the Hodags got three straight 3s — two from Will Gretzinger and one from Devon Feck — to spark an 18-2 run to end the half. 

“It started with the defense and the intensity and then we did a nice job rebounding and getting the ball out,” Lemmens said. “I thought we pushed the ball forward better than we’ve been, and we were able to get on the rim early.” 

Tyler Sundquist scored 16 for Tomahawk and tried to keep the Hatchets afloat early in the second half, but the Hodags led by 42 with 9 minutes to play, triggering the running clock rule.

Much of the second half belong to the reserves. The Hodags called up four players from the junior varsity squad to play a half on Friday. Three of them recorded their first varsity points in the contest. Freshman Abe Gretzinger, Will Gretzinger’s younger brother, got on the board with a layup with 9 minutes to play. Freshman Rowan Wiczek and sophomore Myles Eagleson each made free throws down the stretch for Rhinelander. 

“We lose four halves. You’ve got two halves for Will, two halves for Seth,” Lemmens said. “Each of those JV guys only has one half, so we had to make up that two halves and other guys haven’t been feeling good either. We wanted to make sure we weren’t going to fall short and find ourselves in a numbers crunch. I thought everyone that stepped on the court gave a great effort and really played well.”

    Rhinelander’s Caden Sieker looks to put in an offensive rebound during the first half of a GNC boys’ basketball game at Tomahawk Friday, Dec. 15. Sieker recorded 10 points and 11 rebounds in the Hodags’ 69-26 victory. (Jeremy Mayo/River News)
  

Truman Lamers finished with 14 points for Rhinelander and put an exclamation point on the night on a dunk in transition with a minute to go. The Hodags finished the night just over 47% from the field (27 of 57) and had a 44-27 edge on the glass over Tomahawk. James Heck had three points and eight rebounds for Rhinelander and Sieker secured his first career double-double on a putback with 9:40 remaining. 

“He was just a beast on the glass,” Lemmens said. “I thought our bigs did a nice job crashing. I thought this would be a game where they would get a lot of touches. I thought that diagonal pass would be really good. It never really got to that point, but I thought they did a nice job running the rim and hit the glass hard.”

Aside from Sundquist, no Hatchet scored more than two points as Rhinelander held Tomahawk to 27% (12 of 45) on the night.

Things get more difficult this week for the Hodags, as they face Wisconsin Valley Conference outfits Wausau West and Merrill before the holiday break. Wausau West, guided by Derek Lemmens’s younger brother Nate, comes to town this evening and the Hodags will play at Merrill on Thursday.

“We’re going to take the weekend to get healthy and then we’ve got two Valley teams — one on our court and then one away — to really start to test and say where are we at,” Derek Lemmens said. “I’m excited for the challenge next week.”

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].