WIAA moves Hodags’ regional final game to Monday night

Last week’s snowstorm, and a last-second missed 3-pointer, has created a ripple effect on the date of the Hodags’ regional final contest. 

The WIAA postponed Saturday’s scheduled Division 2 boys’ basketball regional final game between Rhinelander and New Richmond to Monday night at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium. The move was made to avoid a situation where New Richmond would have played games on three consecutive nights.

The situation was created when the winter storm that barreled through Wisconsin postponed New Richmond’s regional quarterfinal game against Ashland from Tuesday night to Thursday night. The Tigers won that game 76-47 and then held off third-seeded River Falls 67-65 on Friday night to become Rhinelander’s opponent for the regional final.

“The specific scenario is unusual,” WIAA Director of Communications Todd Clark told the River News in a statement late Friday evening regarding the postponement. “Typically, weather does not cause cancellations two consecutive days like it did last week. However, after discussions and making the schools that were potentially impacted by the cancellations aware, it was determined that the game would be moved to Monday in order to avoid having a team play and potentially travel on three successive days.”

Rhinelander earned the right to host the game thanks to a thrilling 43-42 win over Rice Lake in which junior Devon Feck hit the game-winning shot with 2.0 seconds remaining. Fans left the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium believing that the regional final game would be played Saturday, as originally scheduled. It was only after virtually the entire crowd cleared out that RHS activities director Brian Paulson informed who was left that the game would be played Monday instead. 

According to an email obtained by the River News, Paulson and the activities directors for New Richmond, River Falls and Rice Lake high schools, were notified by the WIAA shortly after 2 p.m. Friday that the regional final game would be played Monday night, if New Richmond advanced. Had River Falls won, the game would have been played Saturday as scheduled. The Wildcats, as the three seed, had a first-round bye and didn’t play their first tournament game until Friday night. 

Because of the number of things that needed to fall in place, Paulson said he chose not to share the possibility of the regional final game being played on Monday until the scenario actually played out.

“I didn't know if the scenario was going to happen, I didn't want to bring it out and distract anything from the game — looking forward when we have a game to be able to win to even get forward,” he said. “So I thought it was important to get the win, (and then) talk to the WIAA.” 

Paulson said he called the WIAA immediately following the Hodags’ win to lobby for the regional final game to be played as scheduled on Saturday night, to no avail.

“I felt like we're the two seed. One reason is for New Richmond to have to travel after playing Friday to travel three hours, respectfully we’re the two seed, they have a long travel,” he said. “They're still going to on Monday, but I just feel like the two seed, unfortunately, due to (circumstances) out of everyone's control because of weather, we don't get a so-called advantage. We still get the home game, but based on the timeline, as a former head coach, I would say that that is the part that'd be disappointed (with).”

Ultimately, however, Paulson said he understood the WIAA’s decision. 

“We’ve got to look at the positive side, you can't dwell on it. It was out of our control. The WIAA made the decision to do that,” he said. 

That was a sentiment echoed by Hodag coach Derek Lemmens once he heard the news. 

“I understand, you know. I mean, you don't want weather to dictate a season, so I get that,” he said.

Clark said, while unusual, Monday night playoff games are not unprecedented from the WIAA’s point of view in cases of inclement weather.

“We have had to move games to Monday the week of the state tournaments, because inclement weather caused cancellation of sectional finals,” he said.  

Lemmens said, despite losing the advantage of home games on back-to-back nights, that the Hodags needed to try to turn the situation into a positive. 

“We lose a little bit of our momentum, we lose a little bit of that advantage of having that them have to turn around and travel, which is, you know, one of those things that a two seed should be able to earn, but they still have to come to Rhinelander,” Lemmens said. “Having extra time to rest is not the worst thing, so now both teams can play fresh and there's no there's no excuses for either of us.”

The Hodags will also have 48 extra hours to prepare for the Tigers, who come in 14-12 overall on the year. 

“I know that they're just good, solid basketball all around,” Lemmens said. They've got a nice big. They've got some good guards. I'll be talking to coach (Ryan) Brown at Medford. He played them and I'll rely on some of that, hopefully, and we're just going to have to do what we can is play our (best) basketball.”

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].