Offense struggles again for Lady Hodags in loss to Medford

After two games, the Rhinelander High School girls’ basketball team’s Great Northern Conference championship hopes may already be on thin ice. The Hodags’ ability to make 3-pointers currently stands on a much more substantial base of frozen water. 

Rhinelander shot just 27% from the field and was 6 of 29 from 3-point range Friday night as it fell to Medford 55-45 at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium.

The Hodags (2-3, 0-2 Great Northern) have dropped back-to-back games to the two teams they figure to be chasing for the GNC title this season, and the offense has floundered in both contests. After failing to score a point over the final 8 minuets, 36 seconds of a 43-32 loss to Mosinee on Dec. 2, the Hodags were just 3 of 21 from the field in the first half Friday night against the Raiders, and didn’t hit a shot from beyond the arc until early in the second. 

Sisters Aubryn and Teagan Clark continued to struggle form distance, going a combined 3 of 20 on the night and — despite attempting more than 32 3s per contest — Rhinelander is connecting at just over a 25% clip through five games. 

“We haven’t shot well in a long time. We don’t have a whole lot of inside scoring, so, we live and die a little bit by the outside shot,” Hodag coach Ryan Clark said. “I was hoping to get a little more transition baskets, but we haven’t really scored in transition very much either. We got some good looks ... We started making a few at the end there, but the first half was super cold.”

    Rhinelander’s Vivian Lamers puts up a shot against Medford’s Rylee Hraby during the second half of a GNC girls’ basketball game at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium Friday, Dec. 5. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

Rhinelander started to get some offensive flow in the second half. Aubryn Clark scored a game-high 21 points and collected nine rebounds. Vivian Lamers added 10 for the Hodags, but Medford shot 9 of 14 over the final 18 minutes to keep the Hodags at arm’s length. Taylor Klingbeil scored 22 points to lead the Raiders. 

Medford (4-1, 2-0 Great Northern) used a 12-2 run to go up 14-6 midway through the first half and led 23-10 before Aubryn Clark snapped a nearly 12-minute field goal drought for the Hodags with a runner with 32 seconds left that made it 23-12 at the break. 

The Raiders scored the first eight points of the second half to build their largest lead of the night. Rhinelander responded with a 13-2 run to cut the lead to 33-25 with 10:41 to play. However, unlike last December when the Hodags’ erased a 23-point deficit and beat Medford in overtime at the Miazga Gym, the Raiders had enough staying power to thwart the Hodags’ advances. 

Medford answered with a 12-5 run, capped off by a Rylee Hraby make tho put Medford up 16 with 4:34 remaining. Hraby added 16 points in the win while Kayla Baumgartner had nine points and nine rebounds. 

    Rhinelander’s Lexi Beran drives in for a layup against Medford’s Laney Hraby during the second half of a GNC girls’ basketball game at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium Friday, Dec. 5. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

“In the half court, on the ball-screen defense, we were really slow to react. And when the bigs (Klingbeil and Baumgartner) got it inside, they just kind of powered and scored,” coach Clark said. “They were balanced on their shots, they finished strong through contact. And we just didn’t have a really good defense game.”

Rhinelander finally made some shots — hitting three 3-pointers over the final three minutes of the game — but by then it was too little, too late. 

“I thought in the second half, we started moving the ball and scoring a little bit. That looked OK, but too little too late,” coach Clark said. “We’d make a little run, but they always answered right back. At least we had a little more flow in the second half, score a little bit, but too little to late.” 

Teagan Clark and Ellie Cummings each scored six points for Rhinelander in the loss. 

After a tough stretch to start the season, the Hodags have a full week of practice this week to prepare for a conference game at Antigo this coming Friday night. 

“Other than the first week of practice we’ve had very few practices, a lot of games. But the good thing is we’ve got a lot of experience against a lot of different things,” coach Clark said. “Now we can kind of go back, get the weekend off, the kids get to relax a little bit, get the legs going, and then we can start cleaning up some things, start from addressing some concerns we have. We got some good teams coming up. We’re just got to get ready to play again.”

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].