Hodag Hoops handles Hayward in WIAA tourney opener

A clinical first half was all the Rhinelander High School boys’ basketball team needed to win its WIAA tournament opener on Tuesday. The Hodags will likely need to replicate that caliber of play for a full 36 minutes to make a deeper postseason run. 

Devon Feck scored 16 points, Will Gretzinger added 15 and the Hodags blitzed Hayward in the first half on their way to a comfortable 65-40 win in a Division 2 regional final game Tuesday at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium.

The win allows Rhinelander (16-9, 10-2 Great Northern) a chance to face Rice Lake on the road in the regional semifinals this evening. 

The Hodags shot over 50% in the first half as they raced out to a 44-21 lead at the break. The Hurricanes (5-20, 5-13 Heart O’North) were never able to get the deficit under 20 in the second half, but the Hodags were only 9 of 29 from the field after the break and never quite delivered the knockout blow — a trait that plagued the team in some of its early season victories.

“It was kind of a tale of two halves,” Hodag coach Derek Lemmens said. “The first half kind of showed what we have been doing and what we’ve been. The second half kind of showed what we kind of were in the past a little bit where the ball’s not moving, we’re not moving, not defending well. We got to be reminded again that we’re a very average team when we don’t do a little things.”

After the teams traded turnovers over the first couple of minutes, Rhinelander started to take control. Feck hit his first five shots of the game, including a couple of 3s in an opening 8-0 run. Hayward got within four before Rhinelander went on a 23-4 spurt to go up 31-8 with 7:21 left in the half and maintained that 23-point advantage at the break. 

    Rhinelander’s Will Gretzinger puts up a shot against Hayward’s Luke Gajeski during the first half of a WIAA Division 2 regional quarterfinal boys’ basketball game at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium Tuesday, Feb. 27. Gretzinger scored 15 points in the Hodags’ 65-40 win. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

Feck and Gretzinger both had hot hands in the first. Feck started 4 for 4 from distance and had 14 points at the break while Gretzinger made five of his first six shots to land on 12 points at halftime.

“Once they got rolling, did some really good things offensively and defensively,” Lemmens said. “Devon came in, hit some big shots, got us rolling. I thought guys came out of the gates ready to go and really put us in a spot where we could kind of relax a little bit.”

Rhinelander pushed the lead to 52-24 just over three minutes into the second half but seemed to let off the gas pedal from there. Hayward used an 8-2 run to get back within 22 with 12:34 remaining before both teams fizzled out from the field. Rhinelander made just three field goals over an 11-minute stretch, but Hayward was never able to get any closer than 58-37 with 5 minutes to play.

“We’ve just got to be bigger than that, be focused and continue to play good basketball,” Lemmens said. “I thought we lost focus, we got sloppy, took some things for granted and didn’t perform that well in the second. Also, maybe we’re just due for a bad half. We haven’t had a bad half in a while. We got that one out of the way.”

Evan Shoeder added eight points for Rhinelander while Seth Nofftz, Truman Lamers and James Heck scored seven each. The Hodags finished the night just over 41% (26 of 63) from the field. Lamers also had 11 rebounds as the Hodags won the battle on the glass 45-30. 

Miles McCallum led Hayward with nine points and nine rebounds. Sophomore guard Lucas Hansen, who had been in double figures each of his last five games while averaging 16.2 points per game in that stretch, was held to seven points on 3 of 10 shooting. Nate Harrison also had seven for Hayward, which was held to 27.5% shooting (14 of 51) on the night. 

With the outcome decided late, the Hodags emptied their bench, giving all five seniors a chance to play together in what may have been their final home game. Seldom-used reserves John Currie and Noah Bell both made baskets to the delight of the home crowd. Currie scored on a hook shot with 1:30 to play and Bell made a layup with 1:06 left before Lemmens called timeout to sub out the seniors and give them a curtain call to a standing ovation.

“That’s special and the crowd gets to kind of send them off the way that they deserve,” Lemmens said. “They’ve given a ton to this community, this team and this program. It’s great to have a little opportunity there to honor there and see all five of them on the court at the same time.” 

Rhinelander now turns its attention to a Rice Lake squad that comes into tonight’s game 14-10 overall and received a No. 4 seed despite finishing sixth in a loaded Big Rivers Conference. 

The Warriors are led by 5-11 junior Zach Orr and 6-3 senior JT Schradle. Orr averages 19.0 points, 4.0 rebounds and 3.2 assists a game and has hit a team-high 57 3s on the season. Schradle is averaging 13.5 points and 4.9 rebounds a game while shooting 44% from beyond the arc. The Warriors have two other players, Evan Strand and Will Johnson, who have hit 34 and 23 triples, respectively.

“They’ve got a lot of good shooters. They’ve got a really good point guard that can score off the bounce, and shoot the basketball, kind of control (the game). I think they’re a more talented Medford, really,” Lemmens said. “Orr I would compare to (Medford’s Tanner) Hraby. He’s gonna be a defensive matchup, but he’s going to have guys a little more potent around him. Those are things we’re going to have to make sure we do a little better than what we’ve kind of been done.

“They’re just all really good athletes. You can tell that’s a school the dedicates itself to training. We’ve got to go our there, got to execute, got to match that physicality and, hopefully, at the end of the day, we execute a little better than them.”

Tip off is set for 7 p.m. in Rice Lake. The winner of that game will advance to Saturday night’s regional final and would travel to top-seeded Wausau East should the Lumberjacks hold serve tonight. The Rhinelander-Rice Lake winner would host a regional final if eighth-seeded Merrill upsets Wausau East.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].