Reeled in by the Raiders

The Rhinelander High School boys’ basketball team squandered a chance to take full control of the Great Northern Conference Friday night. Instead, if the Hodags are to win their second straight conference title, they’ll have to prevail in a three-way dogfight down the stretch.

Charlie Gierl had 32 points and 13 rebounds as Medford knocked off Rhinelander 71-63 Friday night in a first-place battle at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium. Truman Lamers scored 22 points for Rhinelander (9-3, 5-1 Great Northern), which had a chance to go two games up in the GNC with six games to play. Instead the Hodags find themselves tied with the Raiders (7-6, 5-1), with last year’s co-champion Mosinee lurking one game back. Those two teams will make up the final two games of the Hodags’ regular season Feb. 21 and Feb. 27.

“It’s just really frustrating,” Hodag coach Derek Lemmens said. “We had an excellent opportunity tonight on our home court and you know, they showed up and we didn’t and, we got to learn from it. We’ve got to move on and we’ve got to keep going.”

Ultimately, the 3-ball decided Rhinelander’s fate —both its inability to make it in the first half and its inability to defend it in the second. 

Down 14 at one point in the second, Rhinelander rallied to tie the game at 48 with 5:15 remaining, but Gierl was fouled attempting a 3 on the other end the next trip down the floor and made all three foul shots to put Medford back in front. He was fouled again beyond the arc on Medford’s next possession, but made the shot this time, and the subsequent free throw. The four-point play put the Raiders up 7 with 3:54 left and the Hodags never got any closer than four the rest of the way. 

Overall, Medford shot 48% (23 of 48) from the field and 10 of 26 from deep. Gierl connected on four triples as he matched his season-high. 

“We had a lot of those instances where we just had a major mental lapse and every time we had a major mental lapse, again, they made the shot.” Lemmens said. “You know, we double-teamed the post and it’s a direct kickout for rhythm 3. It just things like that just tonight we weren’t going to overcome.”

On the other end the Hodags missed all 11 of their 3-point attempts in the first half. Up 12-7 early, the Hodags went the next nine minutes without a field goal as the score flipped to 24-15 in Medford’s favor. 

    Rhinelander’s Evan Shoeder drives to the basket ahead of Medford’ Nick Krause (1) and Charlie Gierl (5) during the first half of a GNC boys’ basketball game against Medford at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium Friday, Jan. 17. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

Rhinelander had success inside early, with forward Evan Shoeder scoring six of the team’s first 12 points, but went away from the post touches as it tried to match Medford shot for shot from deep. 

“We’ve got to understand the game,” Lemmens said regarding his team’s shot selection. “We’ve got to understand the pace, we can’t in a situation like that, try not to get all those points back right away. They’ll make a few 3s, but instead, we just need to keep scoring the basketball and realize that when you’re making shots, no matter where they are in the field, that’s just going to help the deeper shots.”

Shots finally started falling for the Hodags in the second half, but they couldn’t keep up with Medford’s pace. Seth Nofftz connected on the Hodags’ first trip with 16:32 to play and then Truman Lamers and Jatyn Barkus got hot. They combined to score 20 points in a 24-10 run that tied the game at 48. Lamers scored 21 of his team-high 22 points in the second half. Shoeder with 10 points and seven rebounds. Barkus and Devon Feck each scored nine points, but finished a combined 2 of 12 from distance. Feck added nine assists.

Rhinelander shot 64% (16 of 25) in the second half and was 8 of 13 from deep after halftime, but it came too little too late.

“Offensively, it felt like we made shots in the second half, but again, it’s just we are not a cohesive offensive unit,” Lemmens said. “It’s just when we start playing together and sharing the ball a little better and getting higher quality shots, we’re going to be more successful offensively.”

Nick Krause hit three triples early in the second half as part of a 13-point night for Medford. Jason Waller added 12 points off the bench — including back-to-back buckets that put Medford up 62-53 with 1:37 remaining.

Lemmens said his defense allowed the Raiders to get too comfortable, too early in the contest. Medford finished the night with 19 turnovers against Rhinelander’s normally aggressive defense, right around its season average.

“I thought we came out just so sluggish and just purposeless, and we were really reactive instead of in attack mode,” he said. “We need to be the attackers with this defensive system and that wasn’t us. I felt like we were being reactive.”

The Hodags’ scheduled anon-conference contest tonight at home against Merrill has been postponed due to bitterly cold conditions in the forecast. 

Rhinelander will jump back into conference play on the road at Antigo Friday night. 

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].