Lady Hodags fend off Eagles 40-34

The Rhinelander High School girls’ basketball team got everything it could handle from Northland Pines Friday night but still found a way to pull out a road victory. 

Dawsyn Barkus and Vivian Lamers scored 10 points each and the Hodags defeated the Eagles 40-34 in Eagle River.

Rhinelander (11-7, 6-3 Great Northern) found itself trailing Northland Pines (4-14, 1-7) on two separate occasions in the second half, but finished the game on an 11-4 run over the final seven minutes. Lamers hit four free throws over the final minute to give the Hodags some breathing room.

“We just didn’t shoot it very well and, to their credit, they made shots and played pretty confident,” Hodag coach Ryan Clark said. “The last five minutes I thought we played pretty good basketball. We executed a nice slip for a layup, and had a nice drive for a basket, a nice inbound play for a basket. We just got settled in defensively and got the boards.”

Pines went up 30-29 on a Natalie Kohn 3 from the left wing with 7:23 to play, but the Hodags responded with the next five points to take the lead for good. 

Ella Miljevich had six points, including the go-ahead layup with 6:35 left. Lamers added a free throw following a steal and Kelsey Winter made a drive to the basket to put Rhinelander up 34-30 with 6:10 left. 

Kaydence Brost led all scorers with 14 points and hit two free throws for the Eagles that made it a two-point game with 5:26 left, but Pines made only one field goal over the final seven minutes. Lexi Beran scored on an inbound play for Rhinelander with 2:37 left and Lamers made her final four foul shots to ice it. 

“We’ll take any win we can get, but I thought you know when Pines took a little lead there in the second half I didn’t think we panicked we just kept competing and battling,” Clark said. “Defensively overall, some breakdowns, but you hold to 34 points probably not too bad. Only five turnovers in the second half for us, which is a positive. We got good pull-ups. We got good touches inside. We had we had a lot of layups. We just we just didn’t finish very well, so we left a lot of points off the board.”

Rhinelander never trailed in the first half and took its largest lead at 18-11 on a post finish by Beran with 4:36 before the break, but the Eagles answered with a 3 by Vienna Klemett and a runner by Ryley Darr to make it a two-point game at halftime. 

“We had 15 turnovers the first,” Clark noted. “That was kind of a problem — a lot of sloppy travels in the first half just some kind of careless passes. I think we had 18 points 15 turnovers stuff like that so was a little frustrating.”

Pines took its first lead of the night on a Klemett 3 with 15:02 to play, part of a 9-1 run that put Pines up 27-24. The margin stayed there for roughly 2 1/2 minutes before Lamers made a driving layup and Barkus followed with a three that gave Rhinelander a 29-27 edge with 8:08 to go.

Beran added eight points in the win for the Hodags while Klemett had nine for the Eagles.

Rhinelander returns home tonight to face a tough test in Wisconsin Valley Conference-leading Stevens Point.   

“The biggest thing is we just have to keep believing we can play with somebody these more superior teams,” Clark said. “They’ll be a big-time challenge, the best team in the Valley conference. Last year we had a really good battle, but we were at full strength. They got really good athletes. They can do a 1-3-1 press so another opportunity to get better at home.” 

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].