Lady Hodags cruise past Tomahawk 69-35

TOMAHAWK — The Rhinelander High School girls’ basketball team was clinical on Friday night as it took care of last-place Tomahawk in Great Northern Conference play.

Lily Treder scored 17 to lead three Hodags in double figures and Rhinelander rolled to a 69-35 victory over the Hatchets in Tomahawk. 

Rhinelander led 30-4 after the first 10 minutes of the game and, from there, backed off the pressure and tried to extend its bench.

“We came out right away, kind of jumped on them early. I thought our girls were ready to play and gave it an honest effort. I thought they did a nice job,” coach Ryan Clark said. “(Our goals were to) play against the game, work together, communicate nice and early and well. I thought we did that. We’re not 100%, all of our legs today, but I wanted them to play a little bit tired but work together. Right from the get-go we weren’t sloppy at all. We took care of the ball, looked for each other, we were aggressive. Defensively, I thought we did a pretty good job of getting on the right hand and then we were able to get a lot of kids in and it’s always nice to see.”

Rhinelander (15-5, 8-1 Great Northern) forced 34 turnovers, translating that into 35 points in transition. The Hodags first three baskets came off steals as they build a quick 6-0 lead in the opening minute. Rhinelander pushed the lead to 22-2 with 10:45 left in the half and eventually took a 43-16 lead to the break. 

“We used just our man press early and it got to 22-2 pretty quickly,” coach Clark said. “Then we just pulled back and played half-court defense. I wanted to work on some zone presses, but we were able to turn them over and turn that into points in transition really quick, so we just backed off.”

The Hodags made 12 3-pointers on the night, including three each by Treder and Aubryn Clark, who finished with 16 points. Junior Dawsyn Barkus added a couple of triples as she scored a season-high 10 points in the win. 

“Dawsyn had a nice game. She was able to find her groove a little bit,” Clark said.

Senior Tori Riopel hit her first 3 of the season late in the contest, an accomplishment that brought the Hodag bench to its feet. She added a transition basket as she scored a season-high five points. 

“Tori, from last year to this year, has really improved on her shot. In all of our shooting drills, she’s always about our fourth or fifth best shooter after Aubryn, Leah (Jamison) and Lily,” coach Clark said. “She’s had a heck of a week. She’s always been inside, defensively, now she’s out kind of guarding the perimeter. Monday and Tuesday she did a really good job defending the guards and today she hits a 3 and gets some steals. She’s kind of our little spark plug and showed us she can do a little bit more at the end of the year here. I’m looking forward to her helping our team, defensively, this stretch here as a another guard that can really defend the ball.”

Kihanna Vacho led Tomahawk (5-13, 0-8 Great Northern) with 12 points while Freya Alberg chipped in 11. The Hatchets finished the night 38% from the field on 13 of 34 shooting. Rhinelander put up 66 shots in the loss, shooting 42% overall. 

Rhinelander was home Monday night to face Medford in a game that concluded after press time for today’s edition. The Hodags will face Lakeland on Friday night in a game that could have potential Great Northern Conference championship implications, pending the outcome on Monday night’s contest.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].