Wilson scores 12, but late Lewis Cass run closes out Lady Zs

Val T.
Jan 20
4 min read

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

The Rochester girls basketball team fought off Lewis Cass’ first run, but they could not fight off the second.

Aubrey Wilson scored a game-high 12 points while Brailyn Hunter had seven and Jadyn Field had six points and six rebounds, but Lewis Cass scored the last five points of the game to beat the host Lady Zs 34-30 at the RHS gym Saturday.

Lewis Cass trailed by six at halftime but opened the second half on a 16-2 run to lead 27-19. They still led 29-22 on an Ava Hubner cutting layup with 7:36 left before Rochester went on an 8-0 run, eventually taking the lead 30-29 on two Field free throws with 3:52 left.

But Laney Davis cut behind the Rochester defense and hit a 12-footer in the lane to put Lewis Cass back ahead for good with 3:29 left. They were Davis’ only points.

Ali Field missed two free throws for Rochester with 3:21 left.

Then Lewis Cass went to their keep-away game, melting time off the clock.

Presley Johnson made two free throws with 54.2 seconds left to make it 33-30, and after a Hunter air ball, she made another free throw with 26.1 seconds left to complete the scoring.

Johnson and senior reserve Anna Hedrick scored seven each for the Lady Kings.

Lewis Cass improved to 16-3 overall and 5-1 in the Three Rivers Conference. Rochester dropped to 8-10, 2-5.

This is a continuation of a series of rock fights between the teams. This is Joel Burrus’ fourth year as Rochester coach, and they have not scored more than 34 or allowed more than 34 points in a game against Lewis Cass during his tenure.

“Third quarter got us,” Burrus said. “I thought we fought really hard. One of Wilson’s probably better games of the year just from the attacking point. I told them in there it’s amazing what happens when you get offensive rebounds inside the elbows, and she went in there and fist-fought for two offensive rebounds inside the lane and got to the basket. … I don’t know much else that we could have done other than third quarter just been a little bit better.”

Wilson had two 3-point plays in the fourth quarter. The first came after an off-balance banker with 7:07 left. Forty seconds later, she got another, banking one in as she hit the deck.

It was 29-28 with 6:27 left.

Then neither team scored for over two-and-a-half minutes before Field’s go-ahead free throws.

But Rochester also committed 21 turnovers, including four in the fourth quarter. Missing two free throws, while never ideal, were even more costly, according to Burrus. Lewis Cass getting an offensive rebound after a missed Kylie Logan layup was also crucial.

“I told them late, you can’t miss free throws because they are so good at being able to go to four corners and playing keep-away,” Burrus said. “They can keep the ball from a lot of teams.”

Rochester trailed 7-6 after one quarter but held Lewis Cass without a field goal in the second quarter. Wilson and freshman Adalyn Gonzalez flew out at Lewis Cass’ guards from the top of the 2-3 zone while Hunter, Jadyn Field and Ali Field kept the Lady Kings from getting close to the rim.

Aftin Griffin, Lewis Cass’ point guard and a 1,000-point career scorer, did not score at all in the second quarter.

Meanwhile, a Gonzalez driving banker, a Hunter 3-pointer from the left of the key and a Hunter pullup jumper gave the Lady Zs a 13-8 lead.

Marina Melian hit two free throws for Lewis Cass with 2:21 left in the half, but Wilson hit a 12-footer and Gonzalez scored on another rim attack. The Rochester lead was seven.

“We played about as good a defensive half as we could,” Burrus said. “I used the Plymouth game as a gauge of that. But no offense to Plymouth, but these guys are a lot better than Plymouth. Good teams, they went in there at halftime, and I’m sure Kyle (Amor, Lewis Cass coach) was ripping. They came out, and I don’t know how many turnovers we had in that third quarter. … In a game like that, two-point game (a 34-32 Rochester win at Lewis Cass), turnovers were 10 versus eight last year. We had eight; they had 10. That’s the difference in a game like this.”

But it took Lewis Cass less than four minutes to score as many points in the second half as they did in the first. Hubner and Griffin both hit 3s to tie it at 19, and Hedrick’s 3-point play in transition and then another steal and a layup made it 24-19. Another Hedrick free throw and a Lexi Gotshall putback got the lead to eight.

A Wilson free throw and a Hunter driving layup trimmed the deficit to five after three quarters.

Lewis Cass’ losses are to Class 2A, No. 1 Whitko; defending Class 1A semistate champion Lafayette Central Catholic; and Class 2A, No. 12 Oak Hill, who leads the state in defensive scoring average.

“This should give the girls all the confidence in the world that we can compete with them,” Burrus said.

Lewis Cass also won the JV game 49-19. Kyleigh Little led Rochester with 10 points, and Kyla Conley had five.

Lewis Cass 34, Rochester 30

LEWIS CASS (34) (16-3, 5-1)

Ava Hubner 2 0-0 5, Aftin Griffin 2 0-0 5, Kylie Logan 0 1-2 1, Paula Pons 0 0-0 0, Presley Johnson 1 5-6 7, Marina Melian 1 2-4 5, Anna Hedrick 2 3-7 7, Laney Davis 1 0-0 2, Lexi Gotshall 1 0-0 2

TEAM: 10 11-19 34

ROCHESTER (30) (8-10, 2-5)

Aubrey Wilson 4 3-4 12, Brailyn Hunter 3 0-0 7, Adalyn Gonzalez 2 0-0 4, Jadyn Field 1 4-4 6, Ali Field 0 1-4 1, Hope Baugh 0 0-0 0

TEAM: 10 8-12 30

Three-point field goals:

Lewis Cass 3 (Melian, Hubner, Griffin),

Rochester 2 (Hunter, Wilson)

Total fouls: Lewis Cass 16, Rochester 18

Turnovers: Lewis Cass 13, Rochester 21

Score by quarters

Lewis Cass 7 4 16 7 – 34

Rochester 6 11 5 8 – 30