Hodag Hoops breezes past Merrill in final non-conference test

The Rhinelander High School boys’ basketball team is winning games, but is still struggling to fire on all cylinders as it hits the stretch run of the regular season.

Devon Feck scored a season-high 22 points and the Hodags used a late first-half run to pull away from Merrill in a 65-46 victory Monday night at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium. 

Rhinelander (17-5, 9-2 GNC) won its sixth straight game, and led by as many as 24 points in the second half before the Bluejays made it a 16-point game with 2:20 remaining. Feck buried a corner 3 on the Hodags’ next possession to douse Merrill’s smoldering comeback hopes, but afterward coach Derek Lemmens said his team needs to be better in late-game scenarios after seeing the opposition make last-ditch comeback attempts in three of the last four games.

“It’s hard as a coach, you know, you won by 19 on your court, you got to be excited, but it was very frustrating, especially the way we finished again,” he said.

Pressure and defensive positioning were the culprits as Merrill cut the lead to 60-44 late. Lemmens said the issues were similar to those that plagued the Hodags when Mosinee almost rallied from down eight in Rhinelander’s 64-61 win over the Indians last Friday. This time, however, the Hodags had more of a margin for error.

“This is two games in a row and the problem is, you know, what we talked about is we’re not learning from our mistakes and we’re not accepting our mistakes,” he said. “That’s why we’re not learning from them. We have excuses, we have bad body language and those are things that we’ve been working on all season.” 

“Hopefully now, two times in a row, we’re going to look back on this and we’re going to figure out where we need to get better because, you know, this type of play down the stretch is going to cost us opportunities,” Lemmens added.

Kory Page led Merrill (10-13, 2-9 Wis. Valley) with 14 points, but was saddled with foul trouble midway through the first half. He sat with his second fouls with 9:08 remaining and the Hodags went on a 19-2 run in his absence to take a 32-22 lead to halftime. 

    Rhinelander’s Truman Lamers is fouled by Merrill’s Eli Burtman during the first half of a non-conference boys’ basketball game against Merrill at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium Monday, Feb. 24. Lamers scored 17 points in the Hodags’ 65-46 win. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

Truman Lamers added 17 points for Rhinelander. He and Feck did the majority of the scoring in the second half and Rhinelander used a 16-5 run midway through the half to effectively put the game out of reach.

Despite 19 turnovers, the Hodags were efficient on offense, going 48% (23 of 48) from the field and 5 of 13 from beyond the arc. 

“We need to be able to make shots,” Lemmens said. “We’ve survived way too long without it, and if we want to win a conference championship or we want to make that deep run, we have to make open shots.”

Jatyn Barkus and Abe Gretzinger added eight points each for Rhinelander while Evan Shoeder chipped in six early in the game before being saddled with foul trouble. 

“I thought Abe did a great job of being physical. I really liked how Evan came out of the gate, and those two fouls really took him out of his rhythm because he came out ready to go,” Lemmens said. “I felt like guys actively looked to go inside and we didn’t just move and settle. And I thought early on, good things happened from them.” 

Merrill struggled offensively once Page found himself in foul trouble. Though EJ Weix and Tyson Ott scored 10 each for the Bluejays, Merrill had only one field goal over the final 10 minutes of the fist half and finished the night 28% from the floor (15 of 54).  

Hodags home for playoffs

The WIAA revealed its boys’ playoff brackets this past Sunday. The Hodags drew the No. 2 seed and the opportunity to host up to two playoff games next weekend. 

The first will be next Friday against the winner of a regional quarterfinal game between Rice Lake and Lakeland this coming Tuesday. If the Hodags win that one, they will host a regional final game next Saturday.

If Rhinelander and Rice Lake meet, it would be a rematch of last year’s regionals semifinal, won by the Warriors 57-45 in Rice Lake. Lemmens said home court advantage could be huge should the teams meet again next Friday.

“I think there’s a lot of things that are different playing here and playing out west, the way the game’s called and things like that. I think that that’s a real thing. It’s going to be nice for them to have to kind of adjust to that,” he said. “Rice Lake, we’re a little unfamiliar with them, but we saw them last year. We know that they have a really good guard and we know they’re going to play really hard. With Lakeland, we know exactly what they are, who they are and we’ve faced them twice. So either way, we’re going to be facing a team that is very physical and is going to get after it.”

Rhinelander closed the regular season at Medford in a battle for the Great Northern Conference championship on Thursday night. That game concluded after press time for this edition. Visit RiverNewsOnline.com for a brief recap of that game and read a full report in Tuesday’s River News.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].