Lady Hodags win both games of home tourney

The Rhinelander High School girls’ basketball team never trailed last weekend as it knocked off a pair of Wisconsin Valley Conference foes at home in the Tom Kislow Memorial Tournament.

The Hodags overcame struggles on the offensive end of the floor to hold off D.C. Everest 39-33 on Friday night and then came back on Saturday with a wire-to-wire win over Wausau West 53-40.

“Just happy to see them just hang in there and take some lumps and get hit in the face a few times, but just play tough,” coach Ryan Clark said after Saturday’s game. “You know, we’re young, we’re young and inexperienced, and we’re just going to get better.”

Defense carried the Hodags both nights, but especially in the D.C. Everest contest. Though the Evergreens shot just under 42% from the field, they were limited to 31 shots attempts and the Hodags forced 26 turnovers. That allowed Rhinelander to keep Everest at bay when shots weren’t falling in the first half. 

Aubryn Clark was held to three points on 1 of 9 shooting in the first half, but Kelsey Winter scored eight of her 14 points over the first 18 minutes as the Hodags held a 15-13 lead at the break. 

Winter, who it was feared could miss significant time after sustaining a knee injury in a Nov. 25 loss at Rice Lake, not only played through the injury but scored in double figures in both of the weekend contests. She added 11 in Saturday night’s win over Wausau West.

“I never doubt Kelsey. She wants to play senior year, her urgency is really strong,” coach Clark said. “But more than just play, she competes. There’s no mental resistance on anything. She’s on the floor, she’s getting deflections, she’s getting to the rim.”

Everest pulled within two, down 25-23 off a Kirsten Hall 3 with 8:35 remaining, but the Hodags answered with a 9-2 run over the next three minutes to push the lead back to nine. That included a pair of Winter drives to the basket and a step-back 3 from Aubryn Clark, who hit four of her final five shots on the night to finish with 16 points and led all scorers. 

Rhinelander won despite shooting 33% (16 of 48) from the field. The Hodags held Hall, who scored 36 in an overtime win over Rhinelander last season, to 12 points on 5 of 11 shooting. Grace Sandquist added nine points for the Evergreens. 

“Sometimes you gotta find a way to win those ugly games, and I thought we defended well enough to win when we didn’t play very well enough offense,” coach Clark said. “So hats off to the girls, I thought they played really hard.”

The Hodag offense clicked much better Saturday night as Rhinelander led 32-20 at half over the Warriors and never let the margin get under seven points in the second half. 

Aubryn Clark scored 17 of her game-high 23 points in the opening half — including four 3s. She also added a game-high seven rebounds. She drove to the basket for an and-1 and then knocked down a deep 3, sparking a 14-5 run over the final 6:40 of the first half. 

“I just thought our confidence was so much stronger, from starting to finish. I thought we were the better team and we played like it,” coach Clark said. 

Rhinelander also had much more balance on Saturday. In addition to Winter’s 11 points the Hodags got nine points from Vivian Lamers — her first points since a season-opening win at Crandon. JaLyn LaChapelle and Ella Miljevich added four points each as the Hodags were 36% overall from the field, and 7 of 19 from beyond the arc. 

West got 13 points from Paige Anderson, including a put back on an offensive rebound that trimmed Rhinelander’s lead to 38-31 with 11:40 to play. Rhinelander responded with an 11-2 run over the next 4 1/2 minutes to put the game out of reach.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].