Mosinee pulls away from Lady Hodags in rematch

The second round between Rhinelander and Mosinee played out much like the first, and that spelled bad news for the Hodag girls’ basketball team.

The offense went cold in the second half, and the game devolved into a foul fest late as Mosinee defeated Rhinelander 54-39 in Mosinee on Friday night.

Paetyn Jirschele led all scorers with 25 for Mosinee (9-4, 8-0 Great Northern), aided by 20 attempts at the foul line. The Hodags (7-7, 4-3 Great Northern) led 22-19 at the half, but made only one field goal over the first 11 minutes of the second half as Mosinee pulled away. 

“Really competitive game, kind of a grind, but good basketball, just both teams taking each other’s strengths. It was a good battle,” Hodag coach Ryan Clark said. “Mosinee, I’ll give them credit. They played well, they earned that one, but I’m really proud of our girls. We had a good, competitive spirit. We played hard (in a) hostile environment, which was fun. Nothing to hang our heads about. We just gotta get better, take care of the ball a little bit better and we’ll be OK.”

Aubryn Clark led the Hodags with 17 points, including a jumper on Rhinelander’s opening possession of the second half that put the Hodags ahead 24-19. Mosinee scored the next 17 however, to take a lead it would not relinquish. The Hodags didn’t make another field goal until a 3 by Vivian Lamers with 6:53 remaining that made it 38-29 Mosinee. 

As it did in the first meeting, Mosinee face guarded Aubryn Clark most of the night, and then used its height inside to deny a smaller Hodag team looks in the post. 

“We only made four 2s in the game. That’s kind of our problem. We’re not getting enough baskets inside,” coach Clark said. “We ran some of our actions pretty good, but we just don’t have any inside attack at all. So everything is jumpers and perimeter, and that’s really hard to win, especially on the road. So we’re gotta find a way to get some easier points.”

Fouls were an issue both ways. The Hodags had three players foul out of the contest, while Mosinee had one and two other players who finished the game with four fouls. Rhinelander trailed 42-32 with 5:28 remaining when Teagan Clark fouled Jirschele going for a steal at half court. She was assessed a technical after the contact, and coach Clark also received a technical as he tried to plead his case. Jirschele made five of the six free throws she was awarded to make it a 15-point game. 

“It was just a really kind of frustrating game. I mean, there’s 58 free throw shots. (Jirschele) shot 20. Aubryn shot 15. Both teams played really hard. Just, I don’t know, there wasn’t much flow,” coach Clark said. “It was an interesting game, very interesting game. So that was frustrating.”

Rhinelander led 14-5 midway through the first half before Mosinee crawled back, eventually getting the lead down to one on an Addy Henrich layup in transition that made it 18-17 with 17 seconds left in the half. The Hodags hit four free throws before Jirschele scored in transition to make it 22-19 at the break.

Lamers had 10 points, hitting three 3-pointers on the night while Teagan Clark finished with eight. The Hodags shot just 27% (10 of 37) in the game.

Henrich added 11 points for Mosinee, which was 34% (17 of 50) from the field.

The loss all but eliminated the Hodags from Great Northern Conference title contention, as they sit 3 1/2 games behind Mosinee just past the halfway point of the season. Given the gap between the top and bottom teams in the conference, coach Clark said it would be difficult to imagine Mosinee losing enough games to fall back to the pack.

“They’re just not gonna drop any. Coach Josh (Hau) does a really good job of taking away your strengths. He makes good adjustments, and they just played to their identity very, very well,” Clark said.

The road doesn’t get any easier for Rhinelander this week as it travels to Shawano tonight to face UW-Madison recruit Leah Nordin and the Hawks. The Hodags then head to Raider Hall Friday night for a rematch with Medford. 

“They’re gonna be very tough,” coach Clark said of the Hawks. “That’s a potential regional, sectional team. So, super excited for that one. Then, Medford on the road, they got us first time, they’re super solid basketball team as well.” 

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].