Team review: RHS girls’ basketball

While the Rhinelander High School girls’ basketball team sputtered to the finish line, dropping its final four games of the 2023-24 season, the year could be categorized as a success for coach Ryan Clark’s squad.

With a 16-9 mark, the Hodags finished above .500 for the third time in five years. Rhinelander finished second in the Great Northern Conference and hosted a regional semifinal playoff game for the first time since 2020.

“I think we exceeded expectations from outsiders for sure,” coach Clark said earlier this month during the team’s banquet. “Overall, I thought you guys believed you’d have a good year. I thought we came in pretty confident and we finished 16-9, second in the conference. We knew that Lakeland would be the toughest team with their size and height, but I’m really proud of these kids.”

Thanks to a penchant for the 3-point shot, the Hodags built upon last year’s 11-win season despite graduating the top scorer from that team in Ava Lamers. The good news for the Hodags, was virtually all the other key pieces from last year’s rotation returned and the addition of freshman Aubryn Clark helped fill the scoring void left by Lamers’s graduation. 

“Last year I thought we finished the season really strong and this year, I thought we took a big step up,” coach Clark said.

Here are five key storylines from the Hodags’ season.

The year of the 3

Rhinelander opened its season with an impressive 67-38 victory over Crandon and set the tone right away for the type of offense it would have.

The Hodags hit 15 3-pointers in that contest, setting a program record. That record lasted all of eight days, as Rhinelander followed with 16 triples in a win over Athens and made 16 3s again in a win Dec. 28 at Ashland. 

Overall, the Hodags lived and died by the 3-pointer. Rhinelander made 11 or more 3s in a game 13 times on the year, going 12-1 in those games. The Hodags were 4-8 when the were limited to eight or fewer 3s.

“This year, compared to other years, we shot a lot of 3-pointers because I thought we had some kids that could really shoot it,” coach Clark said. “Offensively, we ran a lot more sets than we’ve done in the past and the players did a good job on the fly learning those as well.”

    In this Jan. 19, 2024 file photo, Rhinelander’s Lily Treder puts up a shot between Antigo’s Kailee Krueger (4) and Jenna Czerneski (22) during the first half of a GNC girls’ basketball game at Antigo Friday, Jan. 19. Treder averaged 14.0 points per game for the Hodags and set a program record with 77 made 3-pointers this season. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

A trio of players led the shooting attack for Rhinelander. Senior Lily Treder broke the Hodags’ single-season 3-point mark, knocking down 76 on the season as she shot just under 36% from distance. She finished only four triples shy of the program career record, set by Kenedy Van Zile (2016-2020). 

Treder was far from alone, however, Aubryn Clark wound up third in program history for made 3s in a season with 72 as she shot just under 30% from deep and senior Leah Jamison added 55 triples on the year. As a team, Rhinelander hit 232 3s on the year, the most for a Hodag team in coach Clark’s 11 seasons at the helm.

Aubryn’s ascension

Aside from the 3-pointer, a big part of Rhinelander’s success this year could be traced to the immediate impact made by Aubryn Clark as a freshman. She nearly made up for all of Ava Lamers’s scoring production last year, averaging 20.1 points per game en route to earning unanimous first-team honors from the Great Northern Conference. 

Clark finished the season with 13 20-plus-point games. She reached the 30-point mark on three separate occasions and dropped 41, one point shy of Lamers’s single-game scoring record, in a Dec. 28 win at Ashland.

While some of that production came on volume — Clark’s 450 field goal attempts were by far the most on the team — she was not afraid to facilitate the offense, as evidenced by a single-season program record 143 assists. 

“You were ready, mentally, to give everything you have and try to help this team win,” coach Clark said during the banquet. “She just knows that winning is important. I’m proud of you because you just kept that in the forefront. You wanted to win for your teammates and give them a good experience. Awesome job in your first year and you have a bright future in front of you.”

Close wins

Entering the season, coach Clark figured his team would likely slot in somewhere in the second-to-fourth range in the GNC, with Lakeland being the undisputed class of the field.

Thanks to a couple of tight victories, when the Hodags had to hold on for dear life late, Rhinelander finished in the No. 2 spot.

The first close call came Jan. 9 at Mosinee when the Hodags nearly let a 14-point second-half lead evaporate before holding on for a 43-42 win. Then at home Feb. 5 against Medford, Rhinelander led by 17 with 8:56 remaining before the Raiders made a furious comeback, falling 57-53.

Those wins helped Rhinelander finish a game ahead of Mosinee, and two ahead of Medford, for second in the conference.

“I think our girls just keep battling,” coach Clark said after the Medford game. “They’ve done a nice job this year of, no matter what happens on offense or defense, just kind of dialing in on the next play and just keep battling. They’re getting better.”

Matchup issues

The second Medford win also allowed Rhinelander to play Lakeland for a chance to keep its conference title hopes alive, but Lakeland was far too strong in a 60-34 victory.

Lakeland had a combination that proved lethal against the Hodags when they went up against a number of stronger teams this year. The T-Birds had the height to shut down the inside and control the glass, the quickness to run Rhinelander’s shooters off the 3-point line and force live ball turnovers, and a defender who could shadow Aubryn Clark and limit her production.

That scenario played out several times down the stretch as Rhinelander lost to Shawano near the end of the regular season and to Green Bay Southwest in the WIAA playoffs. Coach Clark said it was a type of basketball that, aside from Lakeland, Rhinelander doesn’t see in the Northwoods.

“To me it’s a great opportunity to learn from this one. I think they play in a much stronger area, stronger teams,” he said following a 67-49 loss at Shawano Feb. 13. “The physicality, the aggressiveness, the confidence, the difference between them crashing the glass compared to us is so much different. We talk about being tough and strong with the basketball, you come down here and that’s a different level of intensity.”

What’s next

While the Hodags will have their top scorer back in Aubryn Clark, what the rest of the rotation looks like remains to be seen. The team bids farewell to five seniors, including four who were key parts of the rotation with Treder, Jamison, Morgan Van Zile and Tori Riopel.

Clark and fellow freshman Vivian Lamers will be the only starters back from the squad and the team will likely need more production out of the two other players returning from the rotation, guard Dawsyn Barkus and forward Kelsey Winter. Otherwise, there will be a number of players from this year’s freshman class — most of whom saw extensive action on junior varsity this year — vying for minutes. 

“We have a nice group of kids coming back and we have a nice influx of kids coming up,” coach Clark said. “It will really come down to you guys I’ll give you all these opportunities but if everyone did the same amount of opportunities you’d all keep the status quo and just slowly move up. I you really want to be a good basketball player or advance further in the playoffs, it’s what you do on your own. That’s really the difference.” 

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].