Hodag Hoops fades late at Wausau East

WAUSAU — After back-to-back road tests against strong basketball teams, coach Derek Lemmens says he knows exactly where his Rhinelander High School squad stands. 

“I think we’re kind of a flashy, soft team, and we’ve got to change that right now and we’ve got to realize that against good teams it’s going be these grind-out gritty, ugly battles, and we have to be ready to fight like that.”

The Hodags didn’t have the fight to keep up with Wausau East Friday night, allowing four Lumberjacks to score in double figures in an 83-58 loss in Wausau.

Friday’s game against the seventh-ranked Lumberjacks followed a similar script to the Hodags’ loss at Wisconsin Dells six days earlier, though Rhinelander’s second-half fade wasn’t quite as dramatic. Trailing 37-33 at the break, Rhinelander allowed a 22-7 run midway through the second that allowed the Lumberjacks to coast to the win. 

Jesse Napgezek paced the Lumberjacks (10-1, 1-1 Wis. Valley) with 27 points while Jayden Garrett added 16. It was another struggle for the Hodag defense, which saw Lumberjack offensive rebounds lead to second-chance points in the first half. East then began to knife through the Hodags at will in the second, scoring 46 points after the break and shooting 47% from the field overall.

“We know No. 1 we’re just not tough enough, whether it’s with the basketball, whether it’s rebounding or even whether it’s defending,” Lemmens said. “We’ve lost a little bit defensively.”

The Hodags (7-2, 3-0 Great Northern) were able to match East blow-for-blow much of the first half — which featured five ties and seven lead changes. Six-foot-six junior Robbie Angiulli scored on a putback to tie the game at 24 and then hit a 3 to give East the lead for go up 27-24. 

Offensive rebounds proved to be a big issue for the Hodags on the evening. East held a 37-30 advantage on the glass, including 17 offensive rebounds that led to 22 second-chance points. 

“When we did play good defense, we didn’t finish the play,” Lemmens said. “And all that does is if we finish those plays, now they don’t have that swag, but they end up getting baskets anyway, so now you see our aggressiveness, our swag disappear and theirs increase. That’s really how the game changes right there.

“That first half, we had our opportunity. We should have gone into the locker room with a lead, and feeling good about what we were doing, but because we just weren’t tough enough, we let them instead have that, and we ran ourselves out of gas trying to fight back.”

Evan Shoeder led the Hodags with 16 points while Truman Lamers had 13 and Jatyn Barkus chipped in 11 as Rhinelander finished the night 41% from the field. 

Despite sitting long stretches in foul trouble, forward Charlie Cayley had 13 points and nine rebounds for East while Angiulli added 11 points. 

Trainer’s room

Rhinelander was without sophomore sixth man Abe Gretzinger, who tweaked a knee in practice last Wednesday. Lemmens said it was not immediately clear how much time Gretzinger, who was averaging 9.4 points and 3.9 rebounds off the bench, would miss. 

“It really impacts our ability to pressure with our 1-3-1,” Lemmens said of Gretzinger’s absence. “This is part of the season. The next guy has to step up, we have to adjust and we have to do what we can with what we have.”

Rhinelander appeared to suffer another blow to its front court depth when Shoeder left the game with about 4:30 remaining with a lower right leg injury and did not return to the contest. Shoeder was unable to put any weight on that leg as he was helped off the court, however Lemmens said initial indications were that the injury does not appear to be anything that will keep Shoeder out moving forward.

“I think he just tweaked it. I think he’s going to be all right. There (was) no need to put him back in it,” he said. “He came back and said he wanted to go in, but at that point there was no reason to risk it. So I think he’s going to be OK.”

Additionally, Lemmens said Devon Feck tweaked an ankle in Thursday’s practice. Feck started and played in the game, scoring eight points on 3 of 8 shooting.

Regardless, Lemmens said the injuries have exposed a weakness for the Hodags, who want to play with tempo on both sides of the ball.

“We’re just not good enough shape. It took guys missing to show that we just don’t have the legs that we need to play the way we want to play, especially on the defensive end,” he said. “So we’ve got to get in better shape. That’s on me, and we’ve just got to get stronger with the basketball and a little more and a little tougher overall and just grittier.”

Outside struggles

Rhinelander finally started to hit a little better from beyond the arc Friday night, going 8 of 20 on the evening. Coming into the contest, Rhinelander was shooting just 26.3% from deep — about a 10-percent drop off in efficiency from last season.

“Shot selection has played a role in that,” Lemmens said prior to the game. “We have really good shooters taking really bad shots. Then we have some guys that just haven’t found their stride. We know we’re capable. We know that we can be better shooters, but those things have to start to come together. I think at some point, we’ll find that, especially as our shot selection improves.”

Up next

The Hodags will host Lakeland this Friday at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium. Lemmens said a full week of practice will be beneficial for the team as it gets set for a key stretch of GNC games that includes upcoming contests at Mosinee (Jan. 14) and home to Medford (Jan. 17).

“We need to practice, we need to heal, and we need to just get ready for a conference play because we were feeling really good and now our first two really good tests, we’ve gotten our tails handed to us,” he said. “We believe, and I believe, that we can be a really nice team and we’re very capable team. That I believe, but we know that we’re long ways from it, and we’ve got to keep moving in that direction.” 

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].