Banged up Lady Hodags fall to Mosinee

Facing Mosinee in a battle for second place in the GNC would have been a tall enough challenge for the Rhinelander High School girls’ basketball team at full strength. Without its leading scorer and do-it-all guard, the task proved to be insurmountable.

Sophomore Aubryn Clark missed the game due to a back issue and the Lady Hodags were unable to keep up with Mosinee’s uptempo attack in a 65-24 loss to the Indians Tuesday at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium. 

Clark, who was held to a season-low seven points last Friday in a 64-28 loss to Lakeland, began to feel her back tighten at practice Sunday and found no relief either Monday or prior to Tuesday’s game. 

She suited up and attempted to participate in pregame warmups, but made it as far as the Hodag bench before needing to stop. She eventually made it to the far baseline to help her teammates, but did not actively participate in the warmup. A couple of times during the game she left the bench and attempted to stretch out in the hallway adjacent to the Miazga Gym, but was never able to get into the contest. 

Without Clark and her 21.5 points per game, the Hodags (9-5, 4-2 Great Northern) posted some of their lowest offensive totals of the season — shooting just 24% (7 of 29) from the field while committing 36 turnovers. 

“That’s a hard one to (take). We gave it our best shot. We were hoping (she’d play). We made it a game-time decision and she was going try to do a warmups, but it wasn’t to be,” said coach Ryan Clark, Aubryn’s father. “I told the girls obviously that changes our dynamic a little bit. She does such a good job of taking care of the ball and you know, against the press, we can just have her be the only one that breaks it, everyone else can go deep. She’s able to get through those double teams and find open kids.” 

    Rhinelander Vivian Lamers drives to the basket against Mosinee’s Megan Treu during the second half of a GNC girls’ basketball game at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium Tuesday, Jan. 14. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

Not that there would ever be an opportune time for the Hodags to be without their leading scorer and primary ball-handler, but her absence only exacerbated Rhinelander’s struggles against a pressure-happy Mosinee team. Junior Taelyn Jirschele scored 18 points for Mosinee while her younger sister, Paetyn Jirschele, had 13 as the Indians (10-4, 5-1 Great Northern) never trailed in the contest. 

Already thin to begin with a seven-player rotation and two other girls in that rotation — Dawsyn Barkus (knee) and JaLyn LaChapelle (leg) — battling through ailments, coach Clark said a number of players were forced into larger roles and outside their comfort zone on Tuesday.

“I told the girls in the short-term, it’s really just, you know, it’s disheartening, it’s frustrating,” he said. “However, it’s a great opportunity for growth from everybody else. So, we got to look at it that way. Hopefully this is a short-term thing with Aubryn, but, you know, this happens and this part of the season, and if we have the right mentality, we can get better.”

Mosinee used a 15-0 run to take a 20-4 lead less than six minutes into the contest and stretched that lead to 35-10 at halftime. The lead continued to grow until a Lisa Maurer 3 with 5:40 to play made it 61-20 and triggered the running-clock rule. 

“That was the difference in the game. They just turned us over so easily,” coach Clark said. “Mosinee, they’re going to come out press aggressively regardless. Then, without Aubryn, just that’s probably too much for us right now.”

Barkus and Kelsey Winter each scored six points to lead Rhinelander while Winter chipped in seven rebounds. Ella Miljevich added four points.

“I thought Dawsyn did a nice job,” coach Clark said. I thought she had she was cool, calm and collected. She’d pivot and repivot. Their press didn’t speed her up as much as the others. And I thought Ella was impactful on the defensive end. Even offensively, she starting to attack a little bit and find open teammates.” 

The Hodags have dropped four of their last five games following an 8-1 start. Even prior to Aubryn Clark’s injury, offense has been an issue for the Hodags. In each of the four losses the team has failed to score 40 points and failed to shoot at least 30% from the field.

Clark’s status is uncertain heading into tonight’s road contest at Medford. She had a huge game in the first meeting against the Raiders Dec. 3 in Rhinelander. She had a single-game school-record 43 points, as the Hodags rallied from down as many as 21 to defeat Medford in overtime, 63-58.

“If we have her, I’m pretty sure they’re going to probably do some type of double or they’re going have some type of defense, probably geared toward her,” coach Clark said. “If we don’t have her, it’ll come down to, you know, can we take care of the ball a little bit better? They got some good guards and they obviously got (Taylor) Klingbeil and (Kayla) Baumgartner, with their size and length. If they try to press us, we have to do a little bit better job and I’ll help them out, too.”

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].