Hodags use early run to ground Eagles

EAGLE RIVER —The first 11 minutes of Friday night’s road game provided the Rhinelander High School boys’ basketball team more than enough cushion against the Northland Pines Eagles. It was the final 25 minutes that left something to be desired for the Hodags.

Devon Feck scored 16 and led four Hodags in double figures as Rhinelander took care of Northland Pines 65-48 in a Great Northern Conference contest in Eagle River. The Hodags opened the game on a 21-2 run, building a margin they played with the rest of the game.

But the Hodags (4-0, 2-0 Great Northern) weren’t as crisp as they would have liked to have been in the contest. Rhinelander committed 19 turnovers, was only 6 of 22 from beyond the arc and let Northland Pines hang around after the early salvo.

“We said we got the job done, but we’re definitely not satisfied with the way that it was done,” Hodag coach Derek Lemmens said. “We came out, we had a nice start to the game, but (were) just inconsistent — a lot of just turnovers and just careless stuff, some defensive lapses.”

    Rhinelander’s Devon Feck attempts a 3 over Northland Pines’s A.J. Muench during the first half of a GNC boys’ basketball game in Eagle River Friday, Dec. 13. Feck scored a game-high 16 points in the Hodags’ 65-48 win. (Jeremy Mayo/River News)
  

The Eagles (5-2, 1-1 Great Northern) made just one field goal over the first 10 minutes and were 5 of 22 from the floor in the first half. Rhinelander finally found some traction on back-to-back 3s by Hayden Schommer and Feck, which started a 15-0 run that put Rhinelander up by 19 with 7:46 left in the first half. 

Overall, Rhinelander frustrated an Eagle offense that came in averaging nearly 65 points per game on the year. Mylo Albrecht had 16 points to lead Pines, but was held to 6 of 16 from the field. Cody Vojta added 9 points and 10 rebounds, but was 2 of 12 on the night. Overall, the Eagles shot 33% (18 of 54) from the field, and were only 7 of 28 from deep.

“I thought overall our defense was pretty good,” Lemmens said. “That’s a good scoring team that was having a hard time getting points, but I thought we did them a lot of favors to allow them to kind of hang around.”

Rhinelander led 36-11 with 1:40 left in the first half before the Eagles went on a 7-0 run to cut the lead to 18 at the break. The Hodags could never quite deliver the knockout blow in the second half. Truman Lamers had 14 points for Rhinelander, including a layup that made it 54-32 with 9:05 left, but Pines answered with an 8-0 run and the margin hovered in the mid-teens the rest of the way.

    Rhinelander’s Evan Shoeder puts up a shot in the lane over Northland Pines’s Jonathan Miller during the second half of a GNC boys’ basketball game in Eagle River Friday, Dec. 13. (Jeremy Mayo/River News)
  

Evan Shoeder had 13 points and eight rebounds in another productive night for the Hodag forwards, who tallied 30 combined points in the contest. Abe Gretzinger chipped in 10 points while Schommer had 7, and the Hodags outrebounded the Eagles by a 41-30 margin.

“I thought our bigs really caused some issues on the glass. We got some nice second-chance point opportunity, some inside touches,” Lemmens said. “And that’s with us missing some really good opportunities as well. I like that trio that we have down low, and we just got to keep getting better and better.”

Rhinelander finished the night 43% from the field (25 of 57), but the turnovers were cause for concern for Lemmens. The Hodags want to run the floor with the squad they have this year, but the pace became too hurried at times on Friday night.

“We want to play fast, but we have to learn that fast still needs control,” Lemmens said. “We’re still at that infant stage of this style and, you know, we have a lot to learn. I think part of that is just us understanding we want to get the ball up to court, but then if there’s not the shot we want, now we’re going to slow down. So they just have to understand when to play with pace and when not to.”

The Hodags return home tonight to face Ashland and will close out the week Friday at home against Tomahawk. Playing against two teams that are a combined 1-9 on the season, Lemmens said the challenge for his team will be to play clean basketball going into the holiday break.

“We’re playing against ourselves, we’re playing against the game,” Lemmens said. “How crisp can we be with our passes, how much can we push while still valuing possessions and, you know, just start to clean things up, because it was really messy and sloppy (tonight).”

Prior to Friday’s game against Tomahawk, the RHS Activities Department will honor Lemmens for reaching his 200th career victory, a milestone he achieved last Tuesday in a win over Wittenberg-Birnamwood. Hodag alumni, especially those Lemmens has coached during this 15-year tenure at RHS, are encouraged to attend and then join in a postgame celebration at Bucketheads in downtown Rhinelander. 

Additionally, both the Rhinelander and Tomahawk programs will be collecting and donating toys for Kindness for Kids prior to the contest. Fans coming to Friday’s game are encouraged to bring a new, unwrapped toy to be donated to the organization, which provides presents for less fortunate families in the Rhinelander area during the holiday season. 

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].