Douglass scores 24, Colvin adds 12 in Caston win over Rochester

J. Field, Hunter score 14 each for Lady Zs

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

FULTON — Caston girls basketball coach Josh Douglass called a 30-second timeout with 5:39 left in the first quarter of Saturday’s home game against Rochester.

His team trailed 5-0. This was unacceptable and not what they had talked about in preparing for the game.

The huddle was just Douglass and the five players separated from the rest of the players and coaches. But one did not need especially keen hearing to hear what he was saying.

“I was mad,” Douglass said. “I called them out. I told them what they weren’t doing. I told them if they kept playing that way, I was putting them on the bench for the whole night, and I was going to go dress the JV, and I was going to take a technical foul for each one of them and put them in for the rest of the game. I guess it worked. … It’s just being ready to play.”

After the timeout, Caston went on an 18-2 run, and they never trailed again.

Smothering Rochester with their man-to-man defense, they held the Lady Zs to just one field goal in a 15-and-a-half-minute span starting in the first quarter and lasting until the 6:30 mark of the third quarter. They built a 24-point lead and held on to win 55-46, reversing a 25-point loss at Rochester last year.

Madi Douglass scored a game-high 24 points for Caston, Grace Colvin had 12, and Hadlie Coffing scored a career-high nine, including back-to-back transition layups in the second quarter that jumped the lead to 24-9 and forced a Rochester timeout.

After making just 11 of 29 free throws in a three-point loss at West Central Thursday, Caston went 13 for 18 from the line Saturday.

Jadyn Field and Brailyn Hunter scored 14 points each for Rochester. Adalyn Gonzalez, held scoreless in her varsity debut against North Judson two days earlier, scored seven.

Rochester would get the deficit down to 50-43 with 1:31 left on two Field free throws, but Douglass split a pair from the line with 1:08 left and made two more with 55.4 seconds left. Colvin tacked on two more at the line with 25.2 seconds left.

Both teams are 1-1.

Rochester committed 28 turnovers.

“We started OK offensively those first two possessions and got two buckets, but then all the wheels came off,” Rochester coach Joel Burrus said. “We talked about we were going to have moments here early on, but to have Thursday night and then have this… I thought we worked extremely hard in the second half to get back in the game, but when you dig that kind of hole, you’re chasing. … How many layups did they get off those – transition baskets?”

Caston’s comeback started with Natalie Warner’s layup off a Camila Hernandez-Rios assist. Then Madi Douglass hit a 3-pointer from the left corner on an inbounds play. Then Madi Douglass hit a 3-pointer from the right corner on an inbounds play. Then Madi Douglass found Allison Craig with a diagonal pass from the left elbow for a layup to give Caston a 10-5 lead.

Madi Douglass said that she worked on adding more arch to her 3-point shot during the offseason. Often times, coach Douglass would stand in front of her and put a hand in her face when she worked on her game.

“I would say my outside shot has improved by a lot,” Madi Douglas said. “I’ve worked really hard on it, just really breaking it down from the basics and just building it up. And it was amazing to see a couple go in. Those weren’t easy. They were tough shots, and it was great to watch them go in.”

Gonzalez made two free throws to halt the run, but Colvin hit two free throws with 54.9 seconds in the first quarter, and Madi Douglass tacked on two more free throws with 7:39 left in the half.

Then came a steal and layup from Madi Douglass, and then she hit a runner off one leg from 14 feet in the lane.

Gonzalez’s steal and layup made it 18-9, but Adyson Steininger hit a pullup from 15 feet, and Coffing’s thefts and buckets got the lead to 15.

“Defense wins games, and that’s what we did to come out in that first half, and it showed,” Madi Douglass said. “This is the first year in awhile that we’ve played a man defense, and I think it’s catching a couple teams by surprise here early, especially with very little film. And that’s the goal. We’re trying to be in an aggressive man and turns team over as much as we can and win that turnover game whenever we can, especially still being on the younger side with only one senior.”

The lead was 28-11 at halftime. On the first possession of the second half, Warner put back a Craig air ball, Colvin hit a 3, and Madi Douglass swooped in from the weak side for a steal and squeezed in a layup in transition before Gonzalez could stop her. The lead was 35-11.

“They started what we talked about defensively,” coach Douglass said. “They rotated. They doubled. They trapped where they needed to and just started communicating together on the team. And then that fed into the offense. And then we got rolling. And then we got tired.”

Hunter hit three treys in the third quarter, including two that triggered an 8-0 run to make it 35-19.

A Lyla Bowers 3-point play, two Field baskets, two Aubrey Wilson free throws and two Field free throws keyed an 11-3 run to the start the fourth quarter as the lead got down to 46-37.

But two more baskets from the 5-3 Coffing stretched the lead back to 13.

“We talk about being under control and staying strong with the ball,” coach Douglass said. “She’s growing. She’s getting better each day. She’s really grown from last year to this year. Not in height. I wish she would grow in height. But overall, just the IQ slowing herself down, being stronger with the ball, making the right pass, making the right read. She has it all, but she’s only a sophomore.”

Jadyn Field again picked up her fourth foul in the third quarter, and Ali Field picked up her fourth in the first minute of the fourth quarter.

For the game, Rochester was called for 21 fouls, and Caston was called for 20.

“That’s not a focus,” Burrus said of the officiating. “Bottom line is I’ve got three starters with three fouls, two fouls and two fouls. You want to talk about a helpless feeling as a coach, and you’re like, do I gamble and keep them in? Or do I get them out? My dad (Maconaquah boys coach John Burrus) is probably sitting over here saying, ‘What are you doing taking them out?’ He plays guys in the first half with four fouls. But I can’t do that. And when you get in a game like that, (Madi) Douglass will just weave through, and she can go lay it in.”

Rochester won the JV game 34-15.

Caston 55, Rochester 46

ROCHESTER (46) (1-1)

Aubrey Wilson 1 4-4 6, Brailyn Hunter 4 2-4 14, Adalyn Gonzalez 2 3-4 7, Jadyn Field 5 4-4 14, Ali Field 1 0-0 2, Lyla Bowers 1 1-1 3, Kyleigh Little 0 0-0 0, Kyla Conley 0 0-0 0, Jayla Miller 0 0-0 0

TEAM: 14 14-17 46

CASTON (55) (1-1)

Camila Hernandez-Rios 0 0-0 0, Grace Colvin 3 4-4 12, Madi Douglass 8 6-10 24, Allison Craig 1 0-0 2, Natalie Warner 2 0-0 4, Ellie Zartman 0 2-2 2, Hadlie Coffing 4 1-2 9, Adyson Steininger 1 0-0 2, Gigi Berry 0 0-0 0

TEAM: 19 13-18 55

Three-point field goals:

Rochester 4 (Hunter 4),

Caston 4 (Douglass 2, Colvin 2)

Total fouls: Rochester 21, Caston 20

Turnovers: Rochester 28, Caston 24

Score by quarters

Rochester 7 4 15 20 – 46

Caston 12 16 15 12 – 55

JV: Rochester 34, Caston 15