Fast start propels Hodag Hoops past Pines, back into GNC lead

The Rhinelander High School boys’ basketball team put Northland Pines in a hole early but left Eagle River knowing it should not have taken as long as it did to finally bury the Eagles.

Will Gretzinger scored 15 points to lead three Hodags in double digits as Rhinelander defeated Northland Pines 60-43 on Friday night.

The Hodags (9-6, 6-1 Great Northern) jumped out to a big early lead and were up by 14 at the break but — much like their first meeting against the Eagles — struggled to deliver the knockout blow. That was a fact that left coach Derek Lemmens wanting more after the game.

“I don’t want to always sound like the negative person, but we’re on the road, we’re up 20 and we’re cruising and then we just continue to go away from all the details,” Lemmens said. “We just get careless. We get careless with our shot selection, with our passes, with our defense, we’re not finishing plays. We’re just a team that isn’t always focused. We let it get to 13 at one point and were just never really able to assert ourselves and really control things.”

The Eagles scored the first basket, but the Hodags answered with 15 straight after that, part of a 20-3 run that was bookended by a pair of corner 3s from senior Will Quinn.

“I thought we were able to get some turnovers, get out in transition,” Lemmens said. “We moved the ball and got some really good rhythm shots. Will Quinn hit some open corner 3s, which is really important. He has to continue to establish himself as an offensive threat because we don’t want to play 4 on 5.”

The Hodags pushed the lead to 45-22 early in the second half, but the Hodags and Eagles mainly traded baskets from there. Pines got to within 14 late in the second before Rhinelander closed things out.

“Overall, there were some really nice spurts but it was just inconsistent. We had some tough shot selection in stretches but, overall, we did enough to win on the road so we’ll learn from it and move forward,” Lemmens said. “We’re hard on ourselves because we know we have the potential to do some really special things. It’s frustrating that we’re still not firing on all cylinders the way we should at this point. Hopefully we are able to find ourselves, buy into what we can be and how we have to play and really start to move forward and get some signature wins.”

Truman Lamers and Devon Feck had 11 points each, while James Heck chipped in eight points as the Hodags finished the night shooting 49% overall (23 of 44) and were 7 of 22 from beyond the arc.

“I thought James had a really good night. He was open a lot of times and finished some plays inside,” Lemmens noted.

Mylo Albrecht paced Northland Pines with 15 points. The Eagles were held to 35% shooting on the night (16 of 46).

The win, coupled with Medford’s 73-70 upset victory over Mosinee on Friday, vaulted Rhinelander back into a first-place tie in the GNC with Mosinee as the second half of the conference season begins. Medford, which has won six of seven following a 1-7 start, moved into third in the conference, just a game behind the leaders. Medford will welcome the Hodags to Raider Hall on Thursday.

“That’s exciting,” Lemmens said of moving back into the conference lead. “We have to realize that we could have beat Mosinee too and now we have to go to Medford and they’re feeling really good about themselves. We’ve got to take care of business Tuesday and then on Thursday, we’re going to enter a very confident team’s house in a very tough gym to play. I hope we’re ready to play some focused basketball.”

Prior to Thursday’s showdown, the Hodags have a non-conference game at home against Three Lakes this evening. Lemmens said his team has to be careful not to overlook the Northern Lakes Conference leaders. 

“They’re a nice team. I really like their bigs. I think they don’t have a lot of depth, but they have a lot of weapons and play good basketball,” he said. “We have to redeem ourselves at home. We’ve really been disappointing at home between energy and execution. We owe it to our Hodag fans to have a great game at home.”

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].