Rochester girls basketball ends pre-Moratorium play with losses at Valley league

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

AKRON — The Rochester girls basketball team ended the pre-Moratorium portion of its summer schedule with losses to Warsaw and Manchester at the Tippecanoe Valley Summer League at Rita Price Simpson Court Thursday.

The Lady Zs fell to Warsaw 20-14 and Manchester 38-28. Each game consisted of two 16-minute halves with a running clock. Games were played width-wise at both the main gym and the auxiliary gym at Valley.

After a rough-and-tumble game against Warsaw, Rochester took an 11-7 lead against Manchester. Jadyn Field, who led Rochester with 10 points, nailed a 3-pointer from the left corner that bounced off the rim several times before somehow dropping and later added a free throw.

But Manchester, who went 13-10 last year but lost twice to Rochester, scored the final seven points of the half and never trailed again.

Rochester got two 3-pointers from sophomores-to-be Adalyn Gonzalez and one from Lyla Bowers.

Rochester played both games without projected starting shooting guard Brailyn Hunter, who was working a summer job. With Hunter not there, Rochester coach Joel Burrus gave playing time and ballhandling responsibility to sophomores-to-be like Gonzalez, Bowers and Hope Baugh. He sprinkled in playing time for incoming freshmen like Ella Jenkins, Morgan Fowler, Macie Widman and Hailey Howell in the second half against Manchester.

“Obviously, we were missing a pretty big piece to our puzzle there,” Burrus said. “Played some younger kids tonight. That’s OK. I thought we really fought Warsaw , and that took a lot out of us. No excuse for the Manchester game, but I knew that was going to take a lot out of us in that game, and you saw us play some younger kids in that second game. But overall, a lot of growth. We’ve got to see the younger kids and know what they’re doing on the court if we put them in there.”

Burrus added that if the younger players are going to have a “deer-in-the-headlights” look, that it would be preferable for it to happen now rather than during the season.

“I’m proud of the girls and the work that they’ve put in to this point this summer,” Burrus said. “We did a lot this June. This was probably the most that we’ve done playing-wise since (2025 grads) R.J. (Rylee Clevenger), Ella (McCarter) and (Audrey) Bolinger.”

Warsaw looked markedly different: Miami (Ohio) recruit Brooke Zartman and Indiana Wesleyan recruit Joslyn Bricker have moved on, and coach Lenny Krens stepped down and was replaced by former Fairfield coach Kyle Hartman.

Still, Burrus said they will be a challenging opponent to defend. Playing a quick Manchester team that could play five guards barely an hour later made them hard to defend.

“I thought in the one-on-one actions with our tops, they had a few blow-bys, and if we give up a few blow-bys with our tops, now the middle man has got to step up, (and) our wings have got to get pinched,” Burrus said. “You could see the fatigue, and we were getting flat-footed. When we’re flat-footed on defense, we’re not very good. When we’re up on the balls of our feet and we’re moving while the ball’s in the air, we’re pretty hard to score on. You saw that more against Warsaw. There’s always going to be things to work on, but I think we’ve done well to this point.”

Burrus has encouraged Gonzalez to be more aggressive offensively, given the attention that Hunter, Jadyn Field and Aubrey Wilson figure to draw.

“We need her to score,” Burrus said.

In addition, spot-up shooters could get opportunities due to the attention that Jadyn Field and Ali Field draw in the post.

“If they will make that shot, now that relieves some pressure on our posts because they’re wanting to stay down and basically double down,” Burrus said. “You saw Manchester bringing that back side help in to double the post. When we talked to Ali and (Jadyn) Field, you’ve got to be ready if you turn middle with that, you’ve got to skip that pass, and we’ll work on that when we get to individual stuff and individual breakdowns.”

The JV beat NorthWood 18-17 and Manchester 22-18.

“I’m really liking what we’re getting out of them,” Burrus said. “I think the freshmen are coming in. They’ve got to start learning our playbook and knowing what we’re doing. But what they’re doing out of our defense, you see they’re getting our coverages down pretty quickly. They’re pretty nasty right now in that defense.

“I’m interested to see when we actually get in and really start diving in to what we’re doing when we get into October, how quick they’ll pick it up.  They had a good eighth grade season. Now let’s see what they can do next year, and let’s just keep them going. Because you can see we’ve got some pretty good pieces and some good athletes. We’ve got to turn them into really good basketball players.”

The girls basketball camp will happen after Moratorium. The final summer game is at home against Peru on July 16. Burrus said he is also considering an open-style practice with NorthWood in July.