January 18, 2023 at 1:13 p.m.
Hodag hoops goes cold on the road
RHS shoots 34% in 60-40 loss at Wisconsin Rapids
Hodag hoops goes cold on the road
Rhinelander shot only 34% from the field and faded down the stretch as they lost 60-40 at Wisconsin Rapids. It marked the first time that Rhinelander shot worse than 40% since a Dec. 20 home loss to Merrill. The Hodags dropped to 1-7 in games where it has failed to shoot better than 40%.
"We really just didn't let ourselves hang around," Hodag coach Derek Lemmens said afterward. "Offensively, the second half we showed some spurts and had some nice slips, some nice back cuts, but we're not doing those things consistently. When we start executing our offense based on what the defense is giving us, we're going to be a lot more successful. Too often we kind of have these predetermined ideas of what we want to do and it hasn't worked well for us when we do that."
Rhinelander (5-7, 3-2 Great Northern) hung around for a bit in the second half. Truman Lamers scored 16 points off the bench to lead the team, including a make with 8:43 remaining that cut Rapids' advantage to 40-33. But Rhinelander went more than six minutes without a hoop from there as the Raiders (6-9, 1-4 Wis. Valley) went on a decisive 13-0 run.
"We were doing some really nice things and then we'd go away from it," Lemmens said. "We couldn't get some key stops during those stretches. I felt like, offensively, we finally countered their physicality a little bit, but it was just too little too late. We dug ourselves a hole that we didn't have the offense to climb out of."
Two others runs by the Raiders put Rhinelander in catch up mode much of the night. The Hodags opened with the first two baskets, but Rapids answered with nine straight points and never trailed the rest of the way. Rhinelander was down two with 2:30 left in the opening half, but the Raiders finished the half on an 8-0 run to take a 28-18 lead at the break.
Rapids shot 46% on the night (23 of 50), despite going only 4 of 20 from beyond the arc. Sean Roenius paced Rapids with 18 points, Evan Mathews chipped in 17 and Cade Jungwirth had a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds.
"I just felt our defense was just pretty poor overall. We just didn't communicate well. We got beat on straight-line drives, not smart pressure," Lemmens said. "We were over-pressuring with our bodies and we were closing out late. We just didn't execute a lot of details."
Will Gretzinger finished with 14 for Rhinelander, 11 of which came after halftime. He finished just 5 of 17 from the field on the night while The Hodags' other sharp-shooter, Kyle Brown was held to 2 points on just 1 of 9 from the field.
Rhinelander was missing four players for a second straight game, including two - Jordan LeGere and Max Ratty - who have started at some point during the season. The Hodags had nine players dressed on Tuesday. Two of them - Matthew King and Devon Feck - were only eligible for a half after playing in both halves of the preceeding JV contest.
"We're missing guys and that's big - especially when it comes to guys not really having it and you want to go the bench to maybe motivate and you can't," Lemmens said. "For a stretch there we only had seven and it just is what it is. Guys have to step up and make plays. Hopefully, as we move forward, we'll get healthy and guys will be ready to go."
Rhinelander fell to 0-4 against the Wisconsin Valley Conference this season with two more games against the Valley on the immediate horizon, beginning with tonight's game at Wausau West, coached by Derek Lemmens' younger brother, Nate.
"They're going to be physical and they're going to body us up," Derek Lemmens said. "That's going to be a recipe that teams see on film. When they're physical with us, they take us out of what we want to do offensively. We have to get better at countering that. That's going to be a big, physical team and we've got to do a better job."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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