Lady Hodags close regular season with win over Lakeland

The Rhinelander High School girls’ basketball team put the clamps on one of the top scorers in the Great Northern Conference and ended the regular season with a victory on Friday.

Aubryn Clark scored 22 points for Rhinelander, and the Hodags held Lakeland’s Ava Evenhouse to six points, in a 57-33 win at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium.

The Hodags (14-10, 10-4 Great Northern) overcame a sluggish start in which they spotted Lakeland (7-17, 6-8 Great Northern) an 8-0 lead. Rhinelander took the lead for good with 5:05 remaining in the first half and held Lakeland to only 20 points over the final 26 minutes of the contest. 

Rhinelander led 21-16 at halftime and put things away with a 26-8 run to begin the second half.

“What I liked about our group, even though it was a close game at halftime, I liked how we were playing, and we weren’t worried about the score being close,” Hodag coach Ryan Clark said. “We were just trying to execute what we’ve been working on in practice, and they really came together, and they got a nice run in the second half.”

Freshman Teagan Clark added 15 points for the Hodags and junior Vivian Lamers flew around the court, collecting 10 points and a game-high 13 rebounds. That included eight offensive boards. 

“I thought Viv looked like freshman Vivian. She were everywhere. She had a whole other gear,” coach Clark. “I thought Vivian was so instrumental today because I could move her all over the place to key off on different situations.”

As a team, the Hodags found another gear after a sluggish start. Rhinelander tied the game at 10 on a Teagan Clark 3 with 8:19 left in the first half. After Lakeland answered with a Hailey Carlson 3, Rhinelander scored the next eight points. Ellie Cummings tied it with a triple and Aubryn Clark put the Hodags in front 15-13 on a pull-up jumper. 

While only six players scored for the Hodags, coach Clark said the ball moved around well, and Rhinelander was able to do more against Lakeland’s height than it did in the first meeting between the squads. Rhinelander won that game, 53-29, but shot just 30% from the field.

“A month and a half ago, this type of defense would have made us really struggle because we only had two kids looking to score. We weren’t real confident to go attack,” coach Clark said. “We got kids that are getting north and south. They’re making plays for others. They started off face guarding Aubryn, then had to take it off because other kids are looking to score. Ellie hit 3. Viv’s looking to score. So that was what I was most happy about. That’s progress from the beginning of the year. They’ve come a long way offensively, and they’re looking to score.”

Rhinelander pulled away in the second half thanks to nine 3-pointers, including three by Aubryn Clark that pushed the lead to 39-22 with 9:34 left. Meanwhile, Rhinelander’s defense put the clamps on Evenhouse, who came into the night averaging 16.8 points per game. Evenhouse had the game’s first five points, but only scored one point the rest of the way as she was held to 1 of 9 from the field and 3 of 7 from the foul line. 

“Lexi (Beran) did a really good job on her. I thought she played really smart,” coach Clark said. “We had Lexi that would be physical inside. We used Aubryn a little bit to be physical inside. And then when she wanted to bring the ball up the court, we just flipped Vivian on her.”

Evenhouse, Sophie Wiczek, Savanah Kemnitz and Britta Kemnitz each scored six points for Lakeland, which was held to 34% shooting (12 of 35) and committed 19 turnovers.

Rhinelander shot 38% (22 of 58) on the night and outrebounded Lakeland 37-26.

The Hodags are the third seed in their half of a WIAA Division 2 sectional and will open up postseason play on Friday night at the Jim against the winner of tonight’s regional quarterfinal matchup between Pulaski (8-16) and Antigo (4-20). 

Pulaski, the No. 6 seed, is favored to win that contest, and coach Clark said the Raiders are better than their record shows after going through the rigors of the Fox River Classic Conference. 

“It’s probably going to be Pulaski, very strong team, be a really good opponent, kind of like Green Bay Southwest a couple years ago,” he said, noting when the Trojans upset the Hodags in a 3-6 game in the playoffs two years ago. “But we’re mentally strong. We’re competitive. And like I told the girls, it’s a long year. You’re gonna be in adverse situations, and sometimes your team’s gonna have prosperity, and we’ve been back and forth. But for playoffs, we get them at home, hope for a huge crowd, and that second season is so much fun. We want to hopefully get both games next week.”

Tip-off for Friday’s game is set for 7 p.m.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].