Lakeland rolls Lady Hodags in first-place battle

MINOCQUA — The Lakeland T-Birds may no longer have playmaker Julianna Ouimette, but they showed Friday night they still have plenty of other players who can get the job done when their number is called. 

Kristina Ouimette, Julianna’s sister, led four T-Birds in double figures and Lakeland blitzed Rhinelander 77-34 in a battle of GNC girls’ basketball unbeatens in Minocqua.

Lily Treder and Aubryn Clark scored 14 each for the Hodags (9-4, 4-1 Great Northern), but Rhinelander didn’t get much else. The Hodags shot under 25% from the field and committed 24 turnovers in a game that matched an 81-34 loss Nov. 20 against Rice Lake as the team’s lowest offensive output of the season.

“We looked very limited tonight,” Hodag coach Ryan Clark said. “We had a good conversation in the locker room. I’m not upset with them, it’s just disappointing because I didn’t pull the right trigger. The game plan wasn’t effective tonight. That’s frustrating as a coach. That’s on me. Then we’ve just got to do a better job of taking care of the ball.”

With reigning GNC player of the year Julianna Ouimette graduated and playing at Lehigh University, Rhinelander went into the contest with a plan to slow down Lakeland’s trio of 6-1 starters — Kristina Ouimette, Ava Evenhouse and Saylor Timmerman. They were actually successful in that regard. Ouimette finished seven points below her season average while Evenhouse and Timmerman combined to score only 10 points. 

The problem for the Hodags was that Lakeland (12-2, 6-0 Great Northern) had other players step up. Ali Timmerman had 15 points alone in the first half and finished with 16 on the night. Bobbi Lee chipped in 15 off the bench and Alyssa Erickson had 11.

Lakeland’s offense was extremely efficient, shooting 52.6% (30 of 57) from the field and 8 of 16 from beyond the arc. 

“It’s kind of like pick your poison. We tried to take away the big three and, credit to them, their other girls really stepped in a big way — made 3s, scored inside. They were tremendous,” coach Clark said. “Going forward, if I could do it again I’d say, let’s match them up a little more true to our style. We still have to help out on Kristina and Saylor, but we won’t let the other kids just be unguarded.”

    Rhinelander’s Kelsey Winter attempts to dribble around Lakeland’s Kristina Ouimette during the first half of a GNC girls’ basketball game against Lakeland in Minocqua Friday, Jan. 5. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

Lakeland set the tone early, starting the contest on a 12-0 run. Rhinelander closed to within 21-13 on a Treder three-point play with 9 minutes to play in the half, but Lakeland went on a 20-3 run from there and eventually took a 48-24 lead to the break. 

Turnovers were the biggest issue in the first half for the Hodags as they committed 17 alone over the first 18 minutes. 

“First half, a lot of turnovers. We tried to pass over hands,” coach Clark said. “They’re already 6-foot-2 and we’re still throwing it over the top. That’s kind of a panic mental breakdown where we have to pivot, repivot and the bounce pass is effective. We did a little bit better as the game went on.”

Any faint hope of a Rhinelander comeback went away as the shots went cold in the second half. The Hodags did not make a field goal over the first 11-plus minutes of the half, finally breaking the drought on an Aubryn Clark 3 with 6:45 remaining. By then, Lakeland had already triggered the running clock rule, building the lead over 40 points. 

Rhinelander was 3 of 23 in the second half and, in total, the 12 of 49 night from the field marked the team’s lowest shooting percentage of the year. 

“The second half we didn’t really hit shots. We attacked a little bit better at times,” coach Clark said. “I told them big players, shooters, you’ve got to rise to these big games. We had a lot of open 3s that we missed.”

Until late in the second half, Rhinelander had only three players who had attempted a shot.

“Some of that stuff is just offseason development. You’ve got to put in time in the offseason if you want to be an offensive player,” coach Clark said. “That’s something we’re going to work on.”

The road does not get much easier for the Hodags tonight as they travel to Mosinee in what has turned into a battle for second in the conference between two teams that sit 1 1/2 games behind Lakeland in the league standings. 

“We looked very timid without Aubryn having the ball in her hands. That’s a concern going against Mosinee because I know they’re going to pressure everybody and see if we can handle it,” coach Clark said. “We’ve just got to respond. It’s a long season yet.”

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].