Flummoxed by zone, Hodag Hoops falls at Wittenberg

After three games of scoring 70 or more points, a team finally put the breaks on the Rhinelander offense and all it seemed to take was a different defense.

The Hodags struggled on the offensive end of the floor, shooting just 24% while committing 19 turnovers, in a 49-33 loss to Wittenberg-Birnamwood in a non-conference boys’ basketball contest Tuesday in Wittenberg.

The Chargers (2-0, 1-0 CWC-East) threw a 1-3-1 zone at the Hodags much of the night and frustrated the Rhinelander offense. The Hodags (3-1, 1-0 Great Northern) shot just 4 of 29 from beyond the arc and struggled much of the night. 

Zandyr Barke got hot for the Chargers in the second half, scoring 19 of his game-high 31 points after the break. That included a personal 12-4 run that put Wittenberg in front for good. 

“Didn’t take great shots necessarily, but just offensively (we) didn’t have good positioning,” Hodag coach Derek Lemmens said. “We didn’t make simple plays. And, I don’t know. It was just an ugly, ugly night. We saw we saw parts of it last night in practice. That was kind of discouraging for us.”

Despite Rhinelander’s struggles, the Hodags trailed by only one, 23-22, at halftime and took the lead on an Evan Shoeder putback 2 1/2 minutes into the second. However, Barke rattled in a 3 from the left corner about a minute later that seemed to ignite the senior. He followed with a runner in the lane and, following a Jatyn Barkus make, hit a left wing 2 that made it 31-26. Devon Feck answered with a baseline jumper for Rhinelander, but Barke drained another 3 and was fouled on the Chargers next trip down the floor. He made the subsequent free throw to complete the four-point play and give Wittenberg a 35-28 lead with 12:34 left. 

Rhinelander got within 39-33 with 6:29 remaining, but didn’t make a field goal the rest of the way as the Chargers finished on a 10-0 run. Rhinelander was 0 for 9 and committed four turnovers over its final 11 possessions. 

“We’re just kind of a weird team tonight. And we didn’t respond to adversity,” Lemmens said. “We had a few guys kind of falling apart a little bit. We had a couple guys really trying to battle. It was just wasn’t our night. And I guess if we’re going to have games like this, this is a good situation to do it.”

Barke converted a layup off a steal to make it 41-33 with 4:30 remaining and the remainder of the Chargers’ points came from the foul line. 

Aside from Barke, the Hodags slowed Wittenberg-Birnamwood’s offense, holding the Chargers to just 35 shot attempts while forcing 19 turnovers. However, Wittenberg shot just less than 46% (16 of 35) and was 5 of 14 from distance. 

“The defense is what kept us in it. And if it wasn’t for us having a having a deficit to overcome they would not have gotten that many points,” Lemmens said. “They struggled with our defense, but, it was just, it was one brick, one miss, after another offensively. At some point, you got to start taking chances, you got to start fouling, you start doing those things.”

Wittenberg used a 14-2 run to take a 19-8 lead with 5:50 remaining in the first half. The Hodags scored 12 of the next 14, capped by a pair of free throws by Abe Gretzinger, to cut the lead to 21-20 with 53.5 seconds left in the first. The teams traded buckets from there as the Chargers led by one at the break. 

Feck led the Hodags with 12 points, but finished the night 5 of 15 from the field and 2 of 11 from deep in his lowest scoring effort of the season. Gretzinger had eight for Rhinelander, but was shut out in the second half on 0 of 6 shooting. Shoeder chipped in seven points and seven rebounds in the loss. 

Kaden Yaeger scored nine for Wittenberg, primarily from the foul line, and Logan Gibson added seven points for the Chargers.

The start time of Tuesday’s game was pushed forward two hours to 5:15 p.m., ahead of impending winter weather that impacted the central part of the state. Lemmens demurred when asked if the early start affected his team, pointing to several other factors that could have led to the struggles.

“We haven’t done a lot of prep work for the zone. I think that we’re coming off of an exciting game (in a win over Medford) on Friday. And I just felt like we weren’t there, mentally,” he said. “I felt like some key players just kind of disappeared, almost hid. When stuff like that is happening, it’s hard to be successful.” 

The Hodags will look to bounce back tonight as they travel to Antigo to take on the Red Robins. Rhinelander will also be trying to avenge a 70-62 upset loss to the Robins the last time the teams met at Sheldon Fieldhouse back on Jan. 24. It was the final conference loss of last season for the Hodags as they went on to win their last five GNC games to take the conference championship.

Lemmens said his team can expect more of what it saw Tuesday night against Antigo.

“Another zone, so are we gonna get better at it or are we going to you know continue to do this,” he asked, rhetorically. “They’re gonna play zone. They won’t be as potent offensively, but yeah, we gotta really focus on that the next two days and just get better.” 

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].