Hodags stuff T-Birds in 79-54 win

MINOCQUA — Despite a 6-4 start to the season, Rhinelander High School boys’ basketball coach Derek Lemmens was clear in stating that his team had yet to play its best basketball. The team came as close to that goal is it has all season on Friday night.

Truman Lamers scored 22 points, Will Gretzinger added 21 and the Hodags pulled away in the second half to a 79-54 win at Lakeland in a battle of Great Northern Conference unbeatens.

After struggling from the field in a win over Ashland followed by a blowout loss at Marshfield, the Hodags (7-4, 4-0 Great Northern) shot just under 48% Friday night and looked more efficient than Lakeland (5-5, 4-1 Great Northern) in pretty much every aspect of the game. 

“Offensively, we had us down for 20 assists. The ball was finally moving and guys are seeing how good the looks will be when the basketball moves,” Lemmens said. “Defensively, we were aggressive and so much more aggressive than we have been the last couple games. We’ll still work on the positioning. Our off-ball positioning is still a little troublesome, but we were finally at least being the aggressors and doing those things. Now we can get better at that.”

The game was back and forth early, featuring nine lead changes over the first 13 1/2 minutes. Rhinelander took the lead for good on an Evan Shoeder 3, part of a 16-6 run to close out the first half as the Hodags took a 32-23 lead to the break.

    Rhinelander’s Truman Lamers dunks the basketball ahead of Lakeland’s Evan Zoch and Stephan Wolfe (10) during the first half of a GNC boys’ basketball game in Minocqua Friday, Jan. 5. Lamers scored a game-high 22 points in the Hodags’ 79-54 victory. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

A 10-3 run to start the second pushed the lead to 16 and Lakeland never got back to within single digits. Lamers put an exclamation point on things with a slam dunk, his second of the night, that put Rhinelander up 58-37 with 9:15 remaining. Though Lamers was assessed a technical foul for hanging on the rim after the dunk, Lakeland never got any closer than 17 the rest of the way. 

Rhinelander was only 3 of 11 from deep in the first half but pulled away thanks to some strong defense and pesky ball pressure. Lakeland was only 8 of 26 from the floor in the first and committed 14 turnovers.

“The defense allowed us to get some good looks in transition and allowed them to not get a rhythm offensively. We were able to weather some of the perimeter misses,” Lemmens said.

Shoeder added 15 points and eight rebounds on the night as the Hodags finished 29 of 61 from the floor. Lemmens credited Shoeder, along with fellow forwards James Heck and Caden Sieker, for neutralizing Lakeland’s inside presence. 

“I thought our bigs, in general, were game-changers,” he said. “Evan was in the statbook but, really, my big fear coming into this game was that Lakeland had dominated teams on the glass. Our bigs really controlled the lane. They controlled the glass. That allowed us to get out in transition because they send a lot of guys (for the offensive rebound). Our transition only happens if the bigs finish those plays. I thought, across the board, there was just a great effort inside.”

Gretzinger made three straight 3s in the second half, an encouraging sign that the Hodags’ leading scorer is starting to snap out of a bit of a shooting funk. Prior to that flurry, he had made only three of his previous 17 attempts from deep, dating back to the Dec. 28 win at Ashland. 

“The ball was moving. They couldn’t just kind of hone in on him and that allowed him to get some nice, rhythm shots,” Lemmens said. “This was a nice win, but we didn’t shoot the basketball great. We were still under 32% from 3 and we had some really good looks from some very good shooters that didn’t go. It’s good to know we can put up those points without having our best shooting game.”

Jalend Cobb led Lakeland with 17 points. He was the only T-Bird in double figures as Lakeland shot 38% (19 of 50) from the field. 

Rhinelander’s win, coupled with Mosinee’s 94-26 trouncing of Tomahawk, moved both the Hodags and Indians into a first-place tie in the GNC, a half game ahead of Lakeland. Rhinelander and Mosinee will meet for the first time this season tonight at the Miazga Gym. Mosinee comes in 10-1 overall and the Hodags will be tasked with trying to pump the breaks on a Mosinee attack that is averaging more than 85 points per game with six players averaging at least nine points a contest. Senior Keagen Jirschele leads that attack averaging 22.5 points per game.

“This is going to be a game that requires a lot of discipline from us.” Lemmens said. “We’ve got to say we’re not going to make this into an up-and-down game. We’re going to make it a half court game. We can still be aggressive offensively, but we have to understand in the running and gunning, they’re better than us. They’ve got Jirschele, who does a great job of getting out in transition, attacking, kicking to shooters and they’re very aggressive offensively. 

“We need to come out of the gates right away and say we’re going to set the tone, defensively, and offensively we’re going to make them work. They don’t want to play defense for a long time and we’re going to make them have to defend longer than they want to.”

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

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].