RHS Sports recap: Saturday, Feb. 21

Boys’ basketball: River Falls 70, Rhinelander 69, OT

The Rhinelander High School boys’ basketball team saw its 10-game winning streak come to an end and it relinquished a 14-point second half lead and fell to River Falls in overtime, 70-69, Saturday at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium.

The Hodags were held scoreless over the final 3:43 of regulation. Cullen Johnson hit a game-tying 3 for the Wildcats with just over a minute to play and Devon Feck missed a contested jumper at the buzzer to force overtime. 

River Falls led wire-to-wire in the extra session. The Hodags had a chance down two with the ball with 19.9 seconds left, but the possession ended in a Feck turnover and Brody Graetz hit two free throws on the other end of effectively ice the game. Feck banked in a 3 with 1.8 seconds left, but the Hodags never got the ball back. 

Feck made a career-high nine 3s in the contest and scored 32 points in the loss. Abe Gretzinger added 16 for the Hodags. Austin Stellrecht had 17 points and 13 rebounds to lead four Wildcats in double figures. 

Rhinelander (20-3, 12-1 Great Northern) close out the regular season at Mosinee on Thursday.

Gymnastics: Rhinelander 1st/5, GNC Small Meet

The Rhinelander High School gymnastics team won its first conference title in eight years in dominating fashion on Saturday, scoring a season-high 126.8 points as it took first place in the Small Division at the GNC Meet in Minocqua. 

The Hodags had four of the top six in the individual all-around, all who earned all-conference honors in at least one event. Emeline Hintz (32.475) was the runner-up in the all-around, was the conference champion on the vault, took second on balance beam and third on the floor exercise. 

Addison Fish (31.75) was fourth in the all-around, and earned all-conference honors on uneven bars (third). Alexis Smith won the floor exercise, was third on vault and took fifth in the all-around and Marsadies Williams was runner-up on uneven bars as she finished sixth in the all-around. 

Rhinelander travels to Antigo for a WIAA Division 2 sectional Friday, Feb. 27.

Full reports will be published in a future edition of the River News.