Hodag Hoops scores win over NLC-leading Laona/Wabeno

The Rhinelander High School boys’ basketball team spread the wealth around Tuesday night as it racked up its ninth straight victory. 

Devon Feck scored a game-high 19 points, Abe Gretzinger added 17 and the Hodags had four players in double figures in a 75-53 win at Laona/Wabeno.

Though the Rebels (16-4, 8-0 Northern Lakes) are a Division 5 school, Tuesday night’s win was key, as their strong overall record should help the Hodags in the computer rankings ahead of the bracket release for the WIAA tournament on Sunday. Rhinelander (19-2, 10-1 Great Northern) sat as the No. 3 seed in its half regional when the mid-season seeding report was released Feb. 6.

“It will look good on the computer, but it’s also a good win,” Hodag coach Derek Lemmens said. “That’s a really quality team. I know they’re not Division 1. They’re a smaller division, but man, they’ve got three really solid guards. They take care of the ball. They can shoot. They can attack. They run really nice stuff. They’re clearly well-coached. So, you know, that’s a nice, quality win on the road.”

Rhinelander led wire-to-wire in the contest and finished the night 55% (31 of 56) from the field. Laona/Wabeno hung around despite a slew of early turnovers for the Rebels against the Hodags’ 1-3-1 zone. After starting the game on an 11-0 run, Rhinelander saw its lead shrink to 20-16 with 5:58 remaining in the first half.

“We got them to turn it over a lot early. Again, though, similar to Merrill where we’re getting these stops, they don’t really have much going on offense, but then we go down on the other end and we were kind of slow getting started too,” Lemmens said. “We gotta get a little more efficient early offense, because then we got to start putting some pressure on these teams. You can’t turn the ball over five out of six (possessions) to start the game and not use a timeout. That means that we’re not doing the job on the other end of the floor.”

The offense finally found its groove late in the first half. The Hodags ended on a 14-5 run to take a 34-21 lead to the break and got the lead over 20 points on a Jatyn Barkus finish in transition that made it 47-26 with 13:22 left in the second. 

Rhinelander’s bigs had their way against the Rebels in the first half. Gretzinger scored 13 of his 17 points over the first 18 minutes and Evan Shoeder had eight of his 12 points in the first half.

Rhinelander hit nine 3-pointers in the second half, including five from Feck. Barkus had two of them as he finished with 14 points. Rowan Wiczek was nearly Rhinelander’s fifth double-digit scorer. He finished with nine points on 3 of 5 shooting from beyond the arc. 

“Coach (Chad) Bolkema recognized some things, we made some adjustments and that really had a big impact. We got a lot of really good looks inside early, after making those adjustments out of the timeout,” Lemmens said. “It was a lot of guys contributing out of the first five. Especially Abe and Evan, in the first half really dictated and established themselves and then the 3s dropped a lot more in the second half.”

Laona/Wabeno had three players in double figures, led by Cooper Albrecht with 18. Canton Chrisman had 14 and Walker Winkelman added 11. The Rebels shot 43% (18 of 42) on the night while Rhinelander forced 19 turnovers.

The Hodags return home tonight to face Lakeland in what is likely a must-win game to keep their GNC title hopes alive. Mosinee can clinch a share of the conference championship with a win over last-place Tomahawk tonight. A Rhinelander win would give the Hodags an opportunity to share the title with a win at Mosinee Feb. 26. 

It’s the first of back-to-back home games for the Hodags, who will host River Falls in a 5 p.m. matinee on Saturday. The Wildcats were the projected No. 1 seed in the Hodags’ half sectional as of the mid-season report.

“Lakeland, we really had to grind it out the first time around against them. We’re hoping to be a little more effective offensively and be able to put them in a spot. That would be great to be able to come out and be firing on all cylinders and put pressure on them early on our court,” Lemmens said. “Then, if we can take care of business on Friday, then we’ve got a great test to really see where we are at before this playoff run begins.”

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].