Lady Hodags put clamps on Rapids in road win

A fast start and strong defense were enough for the Rhinelander High School girls’ basketball team to pick up a road victory Tuesday night in non-conference play.

Vivian Lamers scored 16 points to lead all scorers and the Hodags led wire-to-wire in a 42-26 victory at Wisconsin Rapids. 

Rhinelander (10-9, 6-4 Great Northern) raced out to a 20-2 lead in the first half before the Raiders (10-9, 4-3 Wis. Valley) slowed down the Hodags’ offense. But Rhinelander never let Rapids get on track, holding the Raiders to just 22.5% (9 of 40) from the field in the contest. 

“Just a really good win. Super excited for the girls,” Hodag coach Ryan Clark said. “We talked about this one. We knew this was a big one, but to come out 11-0 to start the game and then 20-2 and just control the whole thing, I told the girls, you held a varsity team with a winning record to seven points in the first half. That’s pretty impressive. Really proud of our defensive effort.”

Rapids struggled against Rhinelander’s pressure early and Teagan Clark hit a pair of 3s as part of an 11-0 run to open the contest. Lamers hit back-to-back 3s to make it 20-2 Rhinelander later in the first.  

Rapids switched to a triangle-and-two defense against the Hodags in an effort to slow down Teagan Clark, and her elder sister Aubryn. While the Hodags’ offensive efficiency dipped after the switch, Lamers excelled and the lead never fell below 10 points in the second half. 

“Vivian really had a good game. I think she had 16. She hit some 3s. She was confident. So it was nice that, they did put a lot of attention to Aubryn and Teagan, and she was looking to be a threat to score. She knocked down some huge shots. That was massive for us,” coach Clark said.

Aubryn Clark added nine points for Rhinelander, as did Lexi Beran, who scored six of the Hodags’ final seven points after the Raiders cut the lead to 35-23 in the closing minutes. Rhinelander shot 37.5% (15 of 40) in the contest. 

“We played really well. It’s just, we missed a lot of free throws and we missed a lot of layups,” coach Clark said. “We had some really good moments. We had some really great basketball, good offense, good defense. We just left too many points on the board.”

Leondra Denson led Rapids with 10 points while freshman Kennedy Kunkol, who came in averaging 17.5 points per game, was held to nine.

“Teagan guarded their freshman leading score that averages 17 games and did a really good job on her,” coach Clark noted. 

The win was the third straight for Rhinelander and moved the Hodags above .500 for the first time since sitting 7-6 following a win at Lakeland Jan. 13. Rhinelander is back in action tonight at Northland Pines to kick off a boys/girls doubleheader. The Hodags downed the Eagles 54-25 in the first meeting Dec. 13 in Rhinelander. 

“Another chance to get a bit better and see if we can get another win and try to get to that two seed in the playoffs,” coach Clark said.

Tipoff for the girls’ game is set for 6 p.m.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].