Shawano pulls away from offensively-challenged Lady Hodags

The Rhinelander High School girls’ basketball team had no answers for Shawano’s trapping half-court zone on Tuesday night and, ultimately, not enough firepower to keep up with the Hawks.

The Hodags shot just 24% from the field and posted one of its lowest scoring outputs of the season in a 52-23 loss to Shawano at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium. 

Rhinelander (12-9, 7-3 Great Northern) was limited on offense in the contest as Shawano flustered the Hodags with a mix of 1-3-1 and 2-3 zones. The 23 points were Rhinelander’s second lowest of the season, behind only the 21 it scored in a loss to Rice Lake back in November. 

The Hawks and the Warriors share a common thread, as both possess a standout who has drawn attention from Power 5 colleges. In Shawano’s case, that’s 6-2 junior — and Wisconsin recruit — Leah Nordin. Though she was held under her averager, with 19 points and 11 rebounds, her length at the top of Shawano’s zone caused problems for the Hodag offense. 

“I was pretty confident they’d come out in a 1-3-1 to start the game and Leah’s really tough on the top. We didn’t get it hardly a shot off in the first few minutes,” Hodag coach Ryan Clark said.

“You know, they’re all learning mistakes. Kids are playing in positions (they’re) not used to playing, there are growth learning mistakes that we just have to kind of go through and hopefully get better as we go on. We battled hard, I thought, in the first half. When they went out of the 1-3-1 to a 2-3, we had a little of success for a while. But, defensively, we did a pretty good job.”

Defense held Rhinelander in the game for much of the first half, but the Hawks got five 3-pointers — three from Maci Beyer and two from Marissa Tomashek — to take a 25-12 lead to the break. Nordin finally got rolling in the second half, scoring 13 points in a 24-10 run that put Shawano up 49-22 with 3:45 remaining. 

“We gave a lot of help toward Nordin knowing that we’re going have two kids probably open for 3s,” Clark said. “To their credit, they knocked them down. Second half we adjusted a little bit and played little more honest defense, but that’s what makes them tough. 

“Nordin is so tough on the offensive glass. She’s just as good as they get in that department.”

Vivian Lamers finished just shy of a double-double for Rhinelander with nine points and nine rebounds. Kelsey Winter had six points and was the only other Hodag with multiple field goals as Rhinelander finished the night 8 of 33 from the field. 

“I thought Vivian played pretty well. I thought, even with the mistakes, she’s doing what we’re asking. She’s playing outside of her comfort zone, but she’s getting comfortable being uncomfortable and when you making those mistakes and they’re good mistakes, you’re growing as a player,” Clark said. “It’s not fun to lose, but I thought we were competitive, I thought we played hard. We’re just a little limited.”

Tomashek added 10 points for Shawano while Beyer had nine as the Hawks finished the night 39.6% (21 of 53) from the field and 7 of 19 from deep.

Things don’t get much easier for the Hodags tonight as they travel to Lakeland to take on the T-Birds, who clinched the GNC title outright with a 65-31 win over Tomahawk on Tuesday. Rhinelander lost to Lakeland 62-28 back on Jan. 10 — which proved to be Rhinelander sophomore Aubryn Clark’s last game prior to suffering a back injury that has kept her out of the lineup since. 

“The challenge there will be obviously, again, can we take care of the ball against their pressure, and then their length and height is going to be an issue,” coach Clark said. “Then can we find ways to score consistent enough to hang with a team that can really turn you over? We’re going to stay high vibes, get back to work, keep working, and just keep getting better.”

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].