Team preview: RHS girls’ basketball

The Rhinelander High School girls’ basketball team was playing its best basketball at the end of the 2022-23 season. Despite losing a major piece off a squad that went 11-15 and finished tied for third in the Great Northern Conference, coach Ryan Clark is optimistic about the squad he will field this year.

“The expectations are really high,” he said Saturday after the team scrimmaged in Wisconsin Dells. “The seniors, they want to win and they’re working really hard, the two juniors are really nice players and then with (the incoming freshmen), I think we’re going to be a pretty tough team.”

The biggest question mark going into the season is how the Hodags will replace the production of unanimous first-team All-GNC selection and GNC scoring champion Ava Lamers. She averaged 23 points per game in the conference, 23.4 points per game overall and had a strong campaign for the Hodags. 

Expect multiple players to shoulder the load in that department. The Hodags return senior Lily Treder, who was honorable mention in the GNC last year and was second on the team, averaging 12.2 points a contest. She leads a class of five seniors that includes fellow outside threat Leah Jamison (6.8 points per game), scrappy guard Morgan Van Zile (5.8 ppg), Tori Riopel and Eva Hetland. Riopel picked up considerable minutes in the rotation in the second half of last year after Kelsey Winter went down with a season-ending knee injury and Hetland will be seeing her first appreciable varsity minutes this winter. 

To that end, Clark said this team reminds him of his 2021-22 squad that needed to replace a leading scorer in Rebecca Lawrence but had a deep senior class.

“By the end of the year they were playing very confident,” Clark said. “That has just carried over. Now those five seniors, senior urgency kicked in, they’re taking a lot of ownership of this team. They’re just really dialed in and playing well.”

The Hodags have welcomed a big freshman class, and at least two of those ninth-graders are expected to make an immediate impact on the varsity lineup. That group is headlined by Clark’s eldest daughter, Aubryn, who contributed right away on Saturday with 28 points in the team’s three scrimmage sessions.

    In this Dec. 9, 2020 file photo, Aubryn Clark drives in from the top of the key during a middle school girls’ basketball game between Rhinelander and Northland Pines at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium. Clark leads a strong incoming freshman class for the Hodags. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

In addition to adding a scoring punch and the ability to get to the rim, Aubryn Clark was the team’s primary ball handler against the press and in half-court offense and provided some rebounding presence, which had been a weakness for what has been an undersized team the last couple of seasons.

“Aubryn’s just a really good player. When she steps in, she can control the whole game. She can get to the rim any time she wants. She finds the shooters,” coach Clark said. “For her, she’s blessed to have wonderful upperclassmen. They’re the best, high-character kids. She’s in a pretty good situation where she can go out there and be her and they’re very inviting and accommodating.”

The Hodags also expect freshman Vivian Lamers, Ava’s younger sister, to be a solid presence in the rotation. She missed the first week of practice as she wrapped up her girls’ swim season with four podium finishes as part of the Hodags’ state championship run on Friday. 

Winter and fellow junior Dawsyn Barkus round out the players who the Hodags had on varsity for Saturday’s scrimmage. Winter is still making her way back from the knee injury she suffered last January at Wausau East and was limited in her role on Saturday. She figures to add a key rebounding presence when she returns to full strength, after averaging seven rebounds a contest last year prior to her injury. Barkus, who had a breakout game with 11 points off the bench in a playoff win against Medford last February, adds another shooting threat to a team that already has an ability to shoot the 3. 

“Dawsyn, Leah, Lily, Aubryn, they all can really shoot the basketball,” coach Clark said. “We have multiple kids that can shoot the 3. I think we can score, I just don’t know if we can consistently stop enough people yet, defensively. And rebounding is a concern until Kelsey is fully healed.”

As the Hodags have in past years, they will also look to the transition game to spark the offense, either off steals or rushing back up the floor after a defensive stop.

“We’re fast. We get a defensive rebound and we call it ‘showtime.’ We just fly. We’re attacking downhill hard,” coach Clark said. “I think we’ll be a fun team to watch. It kinds of reminds me of the team (in 2019-20) when we had Kenedy (Van Zile) and Cynthia (Beavers). They wanted to put on a show.” 

The Hodags open the regular season at home Thursday night at home against Crandon and had their lone dress rehearsal on Saturday as they faced Neillsville, Wisconsin Rapids and Madison La Follette in the Dells.  

According to unofficial numbers kept by the River News after reviewing the scrimmage footage, the Hodags fell to Neillsville 35-31 in the opener, beat Wisconsin Rapids 55-35 in the second session and lost to La Follette 46-45 on a 3-pointer with roughly 17 seconds remaining in the session. 

Treder scored in double digits in all three sessions, including 19 against La Follette as she had a team-high 42 points. Aubryn Clark had 20 of her 28 points against Wisconsin Rapids and added 12 rebounds. Barkus finished with 18 points on 6 of 13 shooting from distance, Jamison had 11 points, Riopel had 10 and Winter had six points and 11 rebounds in limited minutes. 

Coach Clark said he was pleased with what he saw out of the scrimmages, especially on the defensive end of the floor. 

“They were just feisty and fought hard and they played three nice teams,” he said. “I was pleasantly surprised. We don’t have a whole lot of size, our margin of error is small on the defensive end, and I think the girls have really bought into executing, early help, rotations, ball pressure. They did a nice job of that today.”

Despite the optimism, the Hodags will face a tough top half of the GNC this year, led by Lakeland following its run to the WIAA Division 2 state tournament. Though the T-Birds graduated conference player of the year Julianna Ouimette, they return her younger sister, Kristina, and two other six-footers from last year’s team. Mosinee, meanwhile returns three all-conference players from last year, including unanimous first-teamer Taelyn Jirschele. 

“I think Lakeland is definitely still the class of the conference, then Mosinee is going to be very tough,” Clark said. “They’re athletic and aggressive kids. Then we’re kind of in that mix, and you never count out Medford either. 

“I think we can run off quite a bit of wins, I think we can be pretty good team as long as we stay healthy.”

Thursday’s opener kicks off a busy early stretch for the Hodags, who will be home to face Rice Lake this coming Monday in a rematch of last year’s 82-73 overtime thriller that saw Ava Lamers score a single-game school-record 42 points in defeat. The Hodags will face Athens and D.C. Everest in the Tom Kilsow Memorial Tournament at D.C. Everest over Thanksgiving weekend before kicking off conference play at Medford Nov. 28.

Fans will get to see the Lady Hodags and the Hodag boys’ basketball team together on the same night seven times during the regular season. In addition to home-and-home conference doubleheaders against Lakeland and Antigo, the teams will have twin-bills at Ashland (Dec. 28), at home against Three Lakes (Jan. 30) and at Shawano (Feb. 13).

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].

RHS GIRLS' BASKETBALL SCHEDULE

Date    Opponent    Time

11/16    CRANDON    7:15 p.m.

11/20    RICE LAKE    6:15 p.m.

11/24    Athens (at D.C. Everest)    10:45 a.m.

11/25    at D.C. Everest    6 p.m.

11/28    at Medford*    7:15 p.m.

12/1    ANTIGO*    6 p.m.

12/8    at Northland Pines*    7:15 p.m.

12/12    WAUSAU EAST    7:15 p.m.

12/15    TOMAHAWK*    7:15 p.m.

12/18    WIS. RAPIDS ASSUMPTION    7:15 p.m.

12/21    MERRILL    7:15 p.m.

12/28    at Ashland    5:30 p.m.

1/2    at Wis. Rapids    7:15 p.m.

1/5    at Lakeland*    6 p.m.

1/9    at Mosinee*    7:15 p.m.

1/12    MEDFORD*    7:15 p.m.

1/19    at Antigo*    6 p.m.

1/23    at Stevens Point    7:15 p.m.

1/26    NORTHLAND PINES*    7:15 p.m.

1/30    THREE LAKES    6 p.m.

2/2    at Tomahawk*    7:15 p.m.

2/9    LAKELAND*    6 p.m.

2/13    at Shawano    5:45 p.m.

2/16    MOSINEE*    7:15 p.m.

2/20    WIAA Regionals    TBD

* Conference games | HOME GAMES IN CAPS