MINOCQUA — With every ounce of effort the Rice Lake girls basketball team chipped away at their deficit, getting within a basket in the final minute, but the Warriors were on the wrong side of a 70-69 loss to Lakeland in a Division 2 regional final on Saturday in Minocqua.
“I think that takes a lot of heart,” Rice Lake coach Darla Olson said of the comeback. “I thought our kids played so hard and I thought they fought through a lot of things.”
The Warriors were down by 16 with 8 minutes left in the game but they worked their way back into it. Eliana Sheplee’s three-point play with 2 minutes remaining got Rice Lake within 69-64.
After creating a couple of turnovers and two missed foul shots by the Thunderbirds, the Warriors made it 69-66 with two free throws by Sheplee with 34 seconds to play. Lakeland missed two more free throws as Rice Lake had the ball with a chance to tie it but Lucie Habas’ triple was off the mark. A foul sent Lakeland to the line and Saylor Timmerman made one of two shots to go up by four with 21 seconds remaining.
Rice Lake came back down the floor and Eliana Sheplee’s shot from deep missed the mark but Addison Schmidt grabbed the offensive board and got it to Adaline Sheplee who scored and was fouled. She made the foul shot and it was 70-69 with 5.2 seconds to go.
On the inbounds pass Eliana Sheplee knocked the ball away but possession stayed with Lakeland after it went out of bounds. This time the Thunderbirds tossed it deep to Bobbi Lee and the clock expired before a foul was whistled.
“They showed a lot of heart down the stretch — we asked a lot of our kids,” Olson said. “We’ve talked about all year that sometimes you get in a game and you just have to find a way. I thought that’s what they did the last 14 minutes of the game. We had 4 minutes I wished we had back.”
Rice Lake was led by 21 points apiece from Eliana Sheplee and Adaline Sheplee and 16 from Schmidt. Habas added eight points.
Lakeland got 24 from Kristina Ouimette and 16 from Timmerman.
The Warrior defense got off to a good start in the game in holding Lakeland scoreless for 5 minutes as the Warriors went in front 6-0. A 12-2 run by Rice Lake was capped by a 3-pointer from Habas as Rice Lake grabbed a 22-13 advantage with 5:20 to halftime.
With the Warriors up 28-19 with 3 minutes until the break the Thunderbirds closed on a 12-3 run of their own as the teams headed into the locker room tied at 31.
Lakeland was hot offensively to begin the second half. After one empty possession the Thunderbirds scored on eight straight trips down the floor. The 18-5 run put Lakeland up 49-36 with 14 minutes to go.
“In that 4-minute stretch, [Timmerman] had come back in after some foul trouble and they started to hit the roll on us,” Olson said of defending the pick-and-roll. “We had planned for that and knew it was a possibility but we were really trying to take away [Ouimette], and I thought [Ouimette] hit a couple of rolls. We weren’t able to get rotations over quick enough and they got a couple of opportunities.”
Combined with its first half run the Thunderbird had an extended 30-8 run.
Rice Lake fought right back and got within seven with just less than 11 minutes remaining but a foul called on the Warriors put Lakeland in the bonus with 10 minutes to go in the game. The Thunderbirds used the foul line and pushed back in front by as much as 16, forcing Rice Lake to claw its way back, which the Warriors were almost able to do, falling just a point short.
The Warriors shot 35.7% from the field and went 5 of 24 from distance. Rice Lake made 14 of its 26 foul shots. Lakeland made 17 of 32 free throws. The Thunderbirds were 12 of 19 (63.2%) shooting in the second half and finished the game at 43.4%.
Schmidt added 15 rebounds and four blocks for the Warriors. Adaline Sheplee also had a double-double with 12 rebounds, while Eliana Sheplee grabbed nine boards. Anna Lipke pulled down five rebounds. Both Habas and Emily Kalina had four steals.
Rice Lake finishes the season at 18-8. The Warriors graduate seniors in Eliana Sheplee, Habas, Sydney Gay and Emily Scheu.
“This group has been really fun to coach,” Olson said. “I’ve really enjoyed working with them top to bottom — every kid in our program brings something, and I’ve just enjoyed every single one of them.
“The season ended a little shorter than we’d like to, but I couldn’t be more proud of their effort, and coming here and competing. We got beat by a good team but we played hard, we played aggressive and we played to win.”
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