Clarks, Lady Hodags go cold vs. Mosinee

If the Rhinelander High School girls’ basketball team is going to get to where it wants to be this year, it’s going to need to be much more than a one- or two-player show. 

Rhinelander’s weaknesses were exposed in a stretch of three games over five days coming out of the Thanksgiving holiday, capped off with a 43-32 loss to Mosinee Tuesday night in the Great Northern Conference opener at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium.

That loss, against the preseason favorite to win the GNC title, came on the heels of the Hodags splitting games Nov. 28 and 29 in the Tom Kislow Memorial in Medford. Rhinelander fell to the top-ranked team in Division 4, Eau Claire Regis, 76-55 in the opener before beating Wausau West 81-40 in the second game. 

The common theme in both losses was that much of the scoring load fell on sisters Aubryn and Teagan Clark. When Mosinee took those two away in the second half on Tuesday, the Hodags’ offense dried up and a seven-point halftime lead vanished. 

The Clark sisters scored 10 points each on Tuesday, but were a combined 6 of 35 from the field and 3 of 25 from 3-point range. The rest of the team attempted just 16 field goals in the game. Mosinee employed a triangle-and-2 defense to take away the Clarks in the second half. The two were held to a combined three points over the final 18 minutes, going 1 of 20 from the field.

“If we’re going to go with those two, they’ve got to be able hit those shots,” RHS head coach Ryan Clark, the sisters’ father, said afterward. “Disappointed in that. Triangle-and-2 just really got us confused. We’re going to have to make some adjustments. Other kids will have to be more aggressive, look to score if we can’t shoot better.

“It’s disappointing, because Aubryn and Teagan should not be shut down against this team, period. Give credit to Mosinee, they played really hard, but they’ve played a lot of good players. This is unacceptable, in my opinion. But yeah, we’ll have to come up with a better adjustments. I thought we were trying to set some screens and then we always floated it back toward the help in the triangle-and-2 versus recognize, ‘OK, once we get a screen, we flash to an open spot. Are we looking for teammates in an open spot?’ I think we just stand a lot, and are really easy to guard. Then we just settle for Aubryn or Teagan just shooting a tough shot.”

    Rhinelander’s Vivian Lamers races up the sideline against Mosinee’s Addy Henrich during the second half of a GNC girls’ basketball game at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium Tuesday, Dec. 2. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

Mosinee used its height and aggressive defense to muddy Tuesday’s game, turning it into a defensive slog. While the Indians (2-2, 1-0 Great Northern) shot just 35% (17 of 49) from the field, they held the Hodags to 22% (11 of 51) and shut out the Hodags over the final 8 minutes, 36 seconds of the game. Vivian Lamers hit a 3 to get Rhinelander within 33-32, but Mosinee finished the game on a 10-0 run. 

Rhinelander (2-2, 0-1 Great Northern) led 21-14 at halftime, but Mosinee opened the second half on a 9-0 run. Junior Addy Henrich, who scored a game-high 13 points, hit a 3 to put Mosinee ahead 23-21 with 13:05 to play. 

The Hodags answered with a 3-point play by Aubryn Clark on the next possession, followed by a 3 from Ellie Cummings to pull ahead 27-23, but Mosinee got the lead back on a Paetyn Jirschele 3-point play with 10:26 remaining and did not trail the rest of the way. 

Mosinee was just 4 of 23 from the field in the first half as the Hodags tried to combat the Indians’ height with a 2-3 zone. Mosinee went with a more guard-oriented attack in the second half and shot 13 of 26 over the final 18 minutes. 

“Second half, they came out with three guards (instead of) three bigs out there. And then, to their credit, they knocked down the open 3s,” coach Clark said. “In the first half, they just had the two guards who were looking to shoot it, and we just defended it inside pretty well. So that was a good adjustment they made there.”

Mosinee, with four starters at 5-9 or taller, also controlled the glass in the matchup, out rebounding Rhinelander 48-35. Henrich collected 10 rebounds to secure a double-double in the contest.

“I thought Vivian, Aubryn, Lexi (Beran) and Gracie (Anderson) battled really hard inside against those bigs, but I thought our guards didn’t help them so much,” coach Clark said. “I actually told the girls at halftime, ‘I think every shot that went up, you guys were always battling with some Mosinee big kid inside.’ It’s a lot to ask for to win that battle and secure the ball or the rebound. So I thought our guards could have done a little better job of coming in there and not being spectators, but just come in there and help out and recognize that.”

Of greater concern for the Hodags, however, is getting more diversity from their offense — especially if teams are going to continue to utilize man-zone hybrid defenses to slow down the Clark sisters. Though four games, they have accounted for just under 70% of the teams points, and 62% of the team’s field goal attempts. 

“I guarantee we’re going to see more of this triangle-and-2 this season,” coach Clark said. “And I’ll find the way to get the other players — Maddie (Paulson), Vivian, Ellie, Lexi, etc., some better opportunities to support.” 

TK Memorial tournament

    Rhinelander’s Teagan Clark puts up a shot against Wausau West’s Emma Downing during the second half of a non-conference girls’ basketball game in Medford Saturday, Nov. 29. Clark scored a career-high 36 points in the contest, as Rhinelander won 80-41. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

Tuesday’s game came on the heels of the Hodags splitting a pair of games over the Thanksgiving weekend at the Tom Kislow Memorial Tournament in Medford. 

The Hodags showed some growing pains in both contests. They shot just 30% from the field against Regis and were tied 11-11 with West until a late first-half surge, but coach Clark said, overall, the team grew from the weekend.

“I think our team, they have a good personality to them,” he said. “They’re tough-minded athletes. I think they’re getting to a point where, as a season goes on, they’re going to be pretty business-like and pretty confident little group of athletes.”

The Hodags couldn’t contain standout junior point guard EllaMay Cooper in the Nov. 28 game against Regis. The junior scored 34 points — and was 19 of 20 from the foul line — as the Ramblers led wire-to-wire. 

Regis opened the game on a 26-7 run, took a 42-21 lead at halftime and the closest the Hodags were able to get was within 19 points on a couple of occasions in the second half. 

It didn’t help that Teagan Clark was saddled with foul trouble. She picked up her third foul with 2:07 left in the opening half, grabbed a fourth just moments into the second and could out with 14:40 to play. 

“With Teagan getting in foul trouble, I was looking forward to the Teagan versus EllaMay game within the game battle, and that never transpired with the fouls,” coach Clark said. “She’s just too good. The one player hurt us in that one, we had to start sending multiple kids at her and she could just beat us off the dribble.”

Teagan Clark’s limited minutes also showed in the Hodags offense. Aubryn Clark scored a game-high 37 points, but needed 38 shot attempts to get there. Overall, Rhinelander was 19 of 62 (30%) from the field and went 11 of 44 from 3-point range.

“Offensively, we just weren’t real confident when Aubryn didn’t have the basketball to attack their quickness or their size,” coach Clark said. “We got a ton of shots. I mean, we got 44 three-pointers. I don’t think of them were that contested. We have to be able to make shots.”

Cooper led four Ramblers in double figures as Regis shot 55% (26 of 47) on the day. Gemma Gardow had 15 points, 6-2 freshman Evelyn Borcherding had a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds, and Izzy Reichert chipped in 11 points for Regis. 

“I think that’s a game we win a year from now,” coach Clark said. “Early this year, I don’t think we’re at that level yet. We’ll grow from it, disappointed, but I hoped for a more competitive game. Overall, I told the girls like, that makes us better. I wish we had more games like that we can play, but in the long run, I think it’ll make us a much better team.”

The shooting woes carried over to the first half of the Nov. 29 game against Wausau West. The Hodags missed their first eight 3-point attempts and found themselves gridlocked with West with 4:32 left if the first half. 

Rhinelander closed the half on a 17-8 run and started the second half on a 16-4 spurt to take a commanding lead. 

“I just liked their mentality in that second half. They came out, they adjusted to how we talked about the track there and halftime and they just had a little more of a killer instinct on them,” coach Clark said.

Teagan Clark had the hot hand for Rhinelander, making eight straight shots from the field between the first and second halves. She scored the first seven points of the second half for Rhinelander and finished with a career-high 36 points on 15 of 27 shooting. 

“Teagan (was) pretty disappointed from (the Regis game). She was pretty hurt, just frustrated with her performance and her lack of playing with her fouls,” coach Clark said. “I told her best thing is you get to play it in less than 24 hours and she has a short memory and so she came out aggressive, looking to score. Then you throw Vivian, looking to score, getting into the basket more, it just kind of opened up everybody.”

Lamers scored 20 of her 22 points in the second half as Rhinelander shot 67% (24 of 36) over the final 18 minutes. Aubryn Clark chipped in 19 points and nine assists in the win. 

Olivia Colwell paced Wausau West with 10 points. The Warriors were held to 38% (15 of 40) from the field and committed 30 turnovers. 

Up next

The Hodags are home to take on Medford tonight in GNC play. The last time the teams met in Rhinelander was 364 days go when Aubryn Clark scored a school-record 43 points to lead the Hodags from behind in a 63-58 overtime win over the Raiders. 

Medford took rematch 64-56 Jan. 17 in Medford with Clark out of the lineup due to a back injury. 

The Raiders are off to a 4-1 start to the season. Their only loss was by six at home to No. 6 (D2) Shawano. Medford is led by six-foot juniors Taylor Klingbeil and Kayla Baumgartner.

“Their starting five is pretty much all returning, and they’re very solid. Klingbeil and Baumgartner, the two, six-foot wings are inside-outside players, very good basketball players, and then their guards are very solid,” coach Clark said. “They kind of get overshadowed a little bit by their two big wings, but they’re very good players. They handle the ball, they play hard, they play good defense, they shoot the 3. They don’t have as much depth as they’ve had in the past, but they’re starting fives is as solid as anybody.”

Tip off is set for 6 p.m., kicking off a boys-girls doubleheader with the Raiders at the Miazga Gym.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].