Lady Hodags run into Lakeland buzzsaw

MINOCQUA — Things will likely be far different next year when Rhinelander and Lakeland meet on the girls’ basketball hardwood. The Hodags will be healthier and the T-Birds will have graduated two of their big three stars. But Friday night showed that, in their current forms, Lakeland is far superior.

Lakeland held Rhinelander without a field goal in the first half and the ninth-ranked T-Birds stormed away to a 70-15 victory in Minocqua.

The Hodag offense, without leading scorer Aubryn Clark for a ninth straight game (back), ground to a halt against Lakeland’s pressure defense. Rhinelander (12-10, 7-4 Great Northern) was just 4 of 29 from the field and committed 35 turnovers. The 15 points were the fewest the Hodags have scored in nearly 20 years, matching a 68-15 loss at Chippewa Falls Dec. 17, 2005. 

On the other end, senior and Green Bay recruit Kristina Ouimette scored 28 points, and the T-Birds (19-4, 12-0 Great Northern) made as many field goals (29) than the Hodags attempted. 

“It’s like being on a ship or a canoe and it’s leaking everywhere, and we’re using a spoon to fix it,” Hodag coach Ryan Clark said. “We tried to take care of the basketball, then they get a couple of runouts and easy baskets. We’d break the press, and we throw it away unforced or then they hit a 3. We didn’t execute our defense plan very well. It just got ugly, quick, but not from a lack of effort, just a much better basketball team, that’s really playing well at the moment.”

Lakeland scored 27 consecutive points midway through the first half and took a 45-5 lead at the break. All five of the Hodags’ points in the opening half came from a foul line. It was not until Kelsey Winter put in a shot off the left block with 12:30 to go that Rhinelander made its first field goal. 

Winter ended up with a team-high six points and nine rebounds for Rhinelander despite picking up three fouls less than five minutes into the contest. 

“She got three fouls right away, which holy cow, but to go the rest of the game and play pretty much the rest of the game and not foul out … that’s really good for Kelsey,” coach Clark said. “Kelsey’s a hard, hard competitive player that’s always in the mix. I mean I can’t pull her out of it. she just wants to compete, but to play really smart and not foul, I thought she was being smart. (Offensively) she flashed in the middle force, she was down low, she was making extra pass on top.”

The win put a bow on a dynastic run for Lakeland in conference play during Kristina Ouimette’s career. Lakeland has gone 46-2 in her four years, and has now won 41 straight conference games and has gone undefeated in the GNC each of the last three seasons. Ouimette also extended her single-season and all-time conference scoring records. She finished with 383 points on the season and 1,137 for her GNC career.

Rhinelander learned its postseason fate during the WIAA’s bracket reveal show Sunday morning. The Hodags drew the No. 5 seed and a first round bye, and will play at fourth-seeded Menomonie Friday, Feb. 28.

Coach clark figured the Hodags were on the bubble for either a fifth or sixth seed in the 11-team half regional. 

“We’ll play wherever we have to play and hopefully our kids will be confident they’re going to keep working hard,” he said. “Hope Aubryn gets cleared for the playoffs week. That’d be fantastic, but if not, we just got to keep battling and just control, what we can control.” 

Rhinelander travels to Wausau East tonight in non-conference play. The Lumberjacks are winless so far on the season. 

“Their numbers are really low and I think they play a lot of underclassmen, probably mostly freshman sophomores, so that’s a tough situation. We’ll go there and try to play really good basketball,” coach Clark said.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].