Lady Hodags run out of time in comeback bid at Medford

MEDFORD —Aubryn Clark and the Rhinelander High School girls’ basketball team pulled off a major second half comeback last season against the Medford Raiders. They nearly did it again Thursday night before coming up one possession short. 

Clark finished with a game-high 23 points, but missed a contested runner with less than 5 seconds remaining as the Hodags fell 53-51 to the Raiders at Raider Hall.

That Rhinelander (7-9, 4-4 Great Northern) was even in position to force overtime was remarkable, considering the Raiders (10-5, 7-1 Great Northern) led 51-34 with four minutes to play. 

It was reminiscent to a game Dec. 3, 2024 in Rhinelander where the Hodags trailed the Raiders 39-22 with 12:30 to play before eventually winning in overtime, 63-58.

“Disappointed we didn’t get the win. That would have been a great comeback win, but we got some young kids. I mean, at times we got three freshmen on the floor,” Hodag coach Ryan Clark said. “We have no seniors. So it’s growth mentality. We just gotta keep getting better. I think our ceiling is still pretty high.”

After Rylee Hraby missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with 27.6 seconds remaining, Aubryn Clark drove in for a layup with 18 seconds left that cut Medford’s lead down to two. Laney Hraby missed another free throw with 10.4 seconds left and Clark again tried to drive in on the Medford defense, but this time her shot hit the iron on a baseline drive. Laney Hraby grabbed the rebound with about three seconds remaining and the Hodags were unable to foul her before time expired.

“Aubryn got a pretty good look there at the very end to try to tie it,” coach Clark said. “We talked about that at the end of the game, so we missed that (shot with) maybe four seconds or so to go, we didn’t foul. We got to foul. You know, it’s slim still, the chances of winning are low, but you still have a chance if they miss a free throw. You might be able to get a half court shot put up. So we talked about that. Just make sure we understand that situation.”

Shots finally started to drop for the Hodags in their late 17-2 run. Aubryn Clark hit two 3-pointers, Vivian Lamers had one and Maddie Paulson banked in another as the margin dropped to 51-47 with 1:51 remaining. 

“We battled back really well,” coach Clark said. “I thought our execution at the end was pretty good. We got the rebounds. We fouled the right people. They missed their free throws, and we got the rebound. We had opportunities.” 

After getting another stop, the Hodags turned the ball over on their next possession and Kayla Baumgartner scored what proved to be the winning bucket in transition for the Raiders, making it 53-47 with 55 seconds remaining.

Ultimately, the Hodags dug too big of a hole for themselves in the contest. Rhinelander went more than eight minutes without a basket late in the first half, and the Raiders scored 13 straight in that span as they took a 25-12 lead to the break. 

Every Hodag push early in the second half was met with a Medford response. A 14-5 run after the Hodags cut the lead to seven made it 39-23 with 11:33 to play. Rhinelander got it back to 10 at the 9:03 mark before Medford used a 12-5 push to build its 17-point lead with 4:14 remaining. 

Taylor Klingbeil led Medford with 17 points, Rylee Hraby was 4 of 5 from deep as part of a 14-point night and Baumgartner added 12 for the Raiders, who shot just under 54% (22 of 41) from the field.

“Just too many breakdowns throughout the course of the game until the last 5 minutes where it really came back to hurt us,” coach Clark said. “Gave us some easy baskets, on some runouts. We had some breakdowns defensively, giving up the right hand. We gave up some open 3s and Medford knocked down quite a few of those.”

Conversely, Rhinelander shot just under 36% (20 of 56) from the floor, and was 9 of 29 from deep. While the Hodags struggled to make shots again, they did make a more concerted effort to work the ball inside, despite the Raiders using their 6-footers, Klingbeil and Baumgartner, to protect the rim.

“They put the two bigs kind of just planted them at the lane and that makes it tough,” coach Clark said. “But we worked on, and we just reinforced, let’s get a little more north and south. We were a little east and west in the first half. We got a little more downhill in the second half. And we had some nice movement off the ball in the second half.”

    Rhinelander’s Maddie Paulson drives against Medford’s Laura Wegerer during the second half of a GNC girls’ basketball game in Medford Thursday, Jan. 22. Paulson, making her first career start, scored nine points for the Hodags. (Jeremy Mayo/River News)
  

Maddie Paulson, making her first career varsity start, had nine points and five rebounds for the Hodags. Teagan Clark and Ellie Cummings had six each for Rhinelander and Lamers chipped in five. 

“We got to find a way to get Teagan involved. She only had six again a night. She’s not getting many looks,” coach Clark noted. “But Maddie Paulson had a nice game, stepped up. Ellie Cummings has had two really nice games together. She hit some 3s today, but she’s playing pretty confident out there. We just need that because when kids are going to put a lot of attention toward Aubryn and Teagan, we’re starting to look to score a little bit.”

Thursday night’s game, which was moved ahead one day due to Friday’s bitterly cold forecast, capped the end of a four-game road trip for the Hodags, which included three tough contests back-to-back-to-back with Mosinee, Shawano and Medford.

“We knew that was going to be a test for us, all three on the road. We were competitive in all three for sure. We had opportunities to win all three. I thought our mentality on the road was pretty good and we didn’t seem like we’re too affected by that,” coach Clark said. “And now we got some games that kind of the second half here where it gets more, maybe the bottom of our conference. But we just got to keep focusing ourselves, keep getting better.”

The Hodags took on Tomahawk Monday night in Rhinelander in a game that concluded after press time for today’s edition. Rhinelander hosts Antigo Friday night at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium, as part of a boys/girls doubleheader against the Red Robins.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].