First half surge pushes Hodag Hoops past Ashland

It took the Rhinelander High School boys’ basketball team a few minutes to find its groove Tuesday night. Once that happened, there was no stopping the Hodags.

Truman Lamers scored 24 points, Devon Feck added 17 and the Hodags trounced the Ashland Oredockers 76-34 at home in non-conference play. 

Rhinelander (5-0, 2-0 Great Northern) remained undefeated on the season despite spotting the Oredockers an 11-8 lead over the first five minutes. Rhinelander scored 25 unanswered points after that as part of a 29-3 run to close out the half and never looked back. 

Coach Derek Lemmens said once the Hodags were able to speed up the Oredockers with the pressure defense, the game opened up for his squad.

“We had a slow start. You know, we missed some layups and just weren’t finishing on the rim,” he said. “Our man-to-man, we had some breakdowns. When we went to the 1-3-1 that really swung the momentum and then, by the end of the first half, we really had all the momentum and had them reeling. I think they got tired and then the pressure affected them as well.”

Feck hit a deep 3 off the left wing to tie at 11 for Rhinelander with 12:20 left in the first half and then made a layup in transition a minute later to give the Hodags a lead they would never relinquish. 

    Rhinelander’s Truman Lamers attempts a free throw during the first half of a non-conference boys’ basketball game against Ashland at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium Tuesday, Dec. 17. (Weston Kibler for the River News)
  

Ashland (0-7, 0-0 Heart O’North) went nearly 11 minutes between field goals as the Hodags’ lead ballooned to 33-11. Rhinelander eventually took a 37-14 lead to the break. 

The lead stayed in the mid 20s for the early part of the second half but Rhinelander went on an 18-3 run capped by a Lamers dunk and a post up basket by Abe Gretzinger that stretched the lead to 70-30 and triggered the running-clock rule with 5:58 remaining. 

Gretzinger scored 11 off the bench for Rhinelander and helped spark the Hodag defense once it transitioned into a 1-3-1 zone. While Lemmens said he wants man-to-man to be the Hodags’ calling card on defense, it’s a luxury to have something else to go to when the team needs a spark.

“It’s a great spark and I think you know again we have such nice length and athleticism that we can really be disruptive with it, but we also still have to get better at having that foundational pieces,” he said. “I want that 1-3-1 to be a spark, so that means we have to be solid with the other D. We weren’t very solid in our man-to-man tonight. So you know those are things that will work on, but you know once these guys get out and they get in the open court, they can make some really good things happen.”

Evan Shoeder added 8 points and 10 rebounds for Rhinelander, which shot 50.8% (31 of 61) from the field and was 6 of 20 from beyond the arc. 

Jatyn Barkus added five points and five assists and, overall, the Hodags had assists on 19 of their 31 made field goals. 

“Offensively guys share the ball,” Lemmens said. “They share the ball really well. It’s hard to tell what our half court offense is because we really were able to get out and transition a lot. I felt like when we were in the half court we are pretty solid. We took care of the ball tonight better.”

Aiden Jolma scored 11 points to lead Ashland. 

The Hodags are back in action tonight to face Tomahawk at the Miazga Gym. The Hatchets were 1-3 as of Tuesday night’s play, with their lone win coming against Division 5 Elcho. Lemmens said the game should be another opportunity for the team improve before an important stretch of games after Christmas.

“That’s another team that we think our pressure can disrupt and cause some chaos a little bit, so we want to continue work on that,” he said. “But, at the end of the day, I also really think we got understand how important is to just be able to play solid all-around defense, because we’re not going to just turn every team over. Our athleticism is nice. We’re going to have opportunities but we just need to become a really solid defensive team back and then play a different pace at different times.”

Prior to tonight’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. Fans coming to Friday’s game are encouraged to being a new, unwrapped toy to less fortunate families in the area during the holiday season. 

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].