Lady Hodags rally past Crandon 57-40 in opener

CRANDON — It was easy to tell the Rhinelander High School girls’ basketball team was feeling far from its best Thursday night, but the Lady Hodags still managed to dig deep when it mattered and win their season opener. 

Sophomore Aubryn Clark scored 25 points and the Hodags outscored Crandon 25-7 over the final 12 1/2 minutes to defeat the Cardinals 57-40 on the road.

Clark, the Hodags’ leading scorer from last season, finished the night 9 of 13 from the field and 7 of 10 beyond the arc. That was despite having to take moments off in offensive rotations and subbing out more than usual as she works her way back from an illness that has hampered her during the first couple of weeks of the season. 

Clark, who missed the team’s scrimmage in Wisconsin Dells the previous Saturday due to the illness, could be seen visibly coughing and catching her breath at times on the floor. The same was true for a few of her Hodag teammates, yet Rhinelander still found a way to pull away late. 

“We’re not healthy. We’re not contagious but it’s just the lingering effects of that cough going around,” coach Ryan Clark said. “You’d have to be living on another planet not to see our young ladies kind of hacking all the time, but I thought they battled really, really hard.

“I think they’re getting healthier. It’s just lingering but I’m really proud of them for not complaining. Nobody said I’m not going to play. They just did the best they could. I’m really proud of them.”

The Hodags looked off their game early as the Cardinals opened the contest on a 15-2 run, but Rhinelander fought back to within two at halftime and took the lead for good on a Lexi Beran bucket with 12:23 remaining. 

Senior Kelsey Winter narrowly missed a double-double with 10 points and nine rebounds, Vivian Lamers added 10 points and Dawsyn Barkus scored eight to help the Hodags. 

“Great contributions from the team by everyone, especially in the second half when they really started to try guarding Aubryn,” coach Clark said. “Everybody else started making really good basketball plays. I’m really proud of the resiliency we showed tonight.”

The Hodags struggled early against Crandon’s 2-3 zone, starting 1 for 5 from the field with 4 turnovers as the Cardinals went up 13 on a spin move by Lily Palubicki with 11:02 to go in the half. Clark got the Hodags going with a left wing 3, followed by a pull-up jumper and another 3 in the corner that sparked a 16-2 run that put the Hodags up 18-17 with 5:19 left in the half. 

After another mini-spurt by Crandon, Clark knocked down a 3 from the edge of the Cardinal logo near half court to put Rhinelander up 24-22 before the Cardinals finished the half on a 7-3 lead to take a two-point advantage to the break.

    Rhinelander’s Aubryn Clark works against Crandon’s Malia Stamper during the first half of a non-conference girls’ basketball game in Crandon Thursday, Nov. 21. Clark scored a game-high 25 points on 9 of 13 shooting in the Hodags’ 57-40 victory. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

Clark had 19 points in the first half as she knocked down 5 of her 6 attempts from distance. 

“She kind of got us back into it. She had one from the logo and we really needed that. That was huge in that first half,” coach Clark said. “It’s always a tough place to play. They’ve got a good student section. It’s always a good atmosphere, but I thought they weathered the storm really, really well. I was a little nervous like we can’t fall down this bad and be this flustered, but when we got it back to 17-15, I’m like, ‘OK, now it should be a ball game.’”

Beran’s bucket underneath started what proved to be a decisive 18-4 run midway through the second half. Lamers followed with an and-1 in transition before Beran found Ella Miljevich underneath for an easy layup to extend the lead to 39-33. Aubryn Clark added a corner 3 and Winter hit a floater in the lane to push the lead to 11. The Cardinals got back to within seven before a driving layup by Barkus and a free throw by Lamers made it 47-37. 

Winter then sparked what felt like the game-sealing play, hitting the deck to wrangle away a loose ball. She chucked it ahead to Lamers, who dished to Clark for a transition 3 that made it 50-37 with 6:11 to play.

“Kelsey, her getting on the floor and just being a senior, we’re more worried about if you’re saving a possession on defense than if you’re scoring baskets,” coach Clark said. “Offensively, we had some breakaways we converted in transition and we hit some big shots. Dawsyn banked in a shot. Lexi had a nice find (to Ella) and had a nice finish. That’s stuff that’s nice to see. We’ve worked on that a lot. For them to apply that in the game, especially as sophomores, I was proud of them.”

Lauren Littleton paced Crandon with 17 points while Palubicki finished with 10 points and nine rebounds for the Cardinals. Those two combined to score 12 of Crandon’s first 15 points but were collectively held to nine points after halftime. 

In general, Rhinelander locked in defensively in the second half as the Cardinals went 5 of 21 from the field over the final 18 minutes and shot under 35% overall (17 of 49). The Hodags also finished with a 25-24 advantage on the glass.

“I thought we did a better job taking away the middle and they weren’t getting transition layups. We just kind of slowly wore them down,” coach Clark said. “One of my biggest concerns in this game was rebounding, with Palubicki and Littleton, they’re such tough kids. I thought we rebounded really well, which allowed us to get out in our break.”

Rhinelander finished the night 51.2% from the field (21 of 41) and an even 50% from deep, making 11 of 22 3s.

Rhinelander (1-0, 0-0 Great Northern) faced a tough challenge on the road Monday at Rice Lake, which concluded after press time for today’s edition. The Hodags will be home Friday and Saturday to face D.C. Everest and Wausau West in the Tom Kislow Memorial Tournament.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].