Hodag Hoops races past Antigo

The Rhinelander High School boys’ basketball team picked up the pace Friday night and ran past a young Antigo squad in the Great Northern Conference opener.

Truman Lamers scored 20 points, Devon Feck added 16 and the Hodags rolled to a 69-40 victory over the Red Robins at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium.

Antigo (2-1, 0-1 Great Northern) ended the game on a 9-1 run to make the game closer than it appeared. The Hodags (2-0, 1-0 Great Northern) outscored the Robins 37-5 over a 13-minute stretch in the first half to take a commanding lead it never relinquished. 

Hodag coach Derek Lemmens said the goal was to push tempo to make an Antigo team with a short rotation uncomfortable.

“That was our goal to play fast. I thought times we got a little sloppy, but even in that in that situation, I think the advantage was still us,” he said. “So first half was really about just pushing the basketball, trying to wear them down.”

Lamers and Feck did most of the damage for Rhinelander in the first half, scoring 30 between them as Rhinelander took a 39-13 lead to the break. Feck was 4 of 6 from beyond the arc while Lamers got to the rim — including a dunk off a steal that gave Rhinelander a 25-9 lead with 8:28 left in the half.

“He loves to get out in the open court. He’s pushing and he does a nice job passing the ball for us,” Lemmens said of Lamers. “We got guys that want to get out in the open court and you see that with the way they push that ball, they move it forward, they run the rim. He did a nice job of attacking and also dropping some dimes.”

Rhinelander again got solid contributions from its forwards on Friday. Evan Shoeder had nine points and 11 rebounds, Hayden Schommer scored eight and Abe Gretzinger chipped in seven. Though the Hodags shot 49% (27 of 55) on the night and attempted only 17 3-pointers, Lemmens said the team could still do a better job working the ball inside. 

“We’ve got to work on that. We’re not finishing well. but we’ve got we’ve got nice size, we’ve got nice athleticism,” he said. “We know we can get on the rim, so that needs to be a priority. I thought at times we settled from downtown instead of looking inside so those are things we we’ve got kind of work on, but I liked our balance for the most part.”

Antigo shot only 27% (15 of 55) from the field on Friday. Ethan Buchman led the Robins with 13 points, Gus Schuessler added 11 and Isaac Buchman had 10. Antigo came into the night shooting 46% from 3 over its first two games but was held to 4 of 20 from deep on Friday. Schuessler, the top returning scorer for the Robins from last year, was 3 of 17 from the field and didn’t make a 3 until a pull-up chance in the finals seconds of the contest.  

The win was the 199th for Lemmens, who is in his 15th year coaching at his alma mater. He’ll go for No. 200 tonight as the Hodags host Wittenberg-Birnamwood in non-conference play.

“Cool opportunity hopefully we do it in Rhinelander,” said Lemmens who did not realize how close he was to the milestone until being asked about it after Friday’s game. “You know, hopefully there’s a lot more after that, too.  

It won’t necessarily be easy against a Charger team that played Rhinelander closely in a 55-47 win for the Hodags in Wittenberg last December. Despite playing most of the game with foul trouble, point guard Jett Rogowski,had 27 against the Hodags last year.

“They run everything through their point guard. Jett’s going to be a senior this year. He’s crafty. He can play at all three levels. He’s a really nice player,” Lemmens said. “Then they just got a lot of beef. You know, there’s a lot of football bodies and they like to set those physical screens and so they’re going to try to muddy it up. We’ve gotta make them play in the open court and sprint down the court on them.”

Tip off is set for 7:15 p.m.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].