Baugh’s big buckets in 2nd OT help Rochester top N. Miami

Wilson leads with 15, frosh Gonzalez, A. Field also score in double figures

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

Hope Baugh Alli Field

Hope springs eternal, and in a game that was beginning to stretch into eternity, it was perhaps fitting that Hope Baugh had a once-in-an-eternity moment Wednesday.

Baugh, a freshman reserve guard, came off the bench to make two critical jumpers and score five points in the second overtime to lead Rochester to a 59-52 win over North Miami at the RHS gym.

Aubrey Wilson led Rochester with 15 points, including six in the overtimes. Freshmen Adalyn Gonzalez and Ali Field both scored in double figures for the first time with 11 and 10, respectively.

Jadyn Field added nine, which included her muscling in a 3-point play with 1:36 left in the second overtime to give the Lady Zs a 53-48 lead.

Laney Musall led North Miami with 18 points, and Grace Sailors had 11. They combined to score all 13 Lady Warrior points in the overtime.

Rochester broke down North Miami off the dribble and got to the rim enough that they turned it into free throw opportunities: Rochester was 22 of 31 from the foul line while North Miami was 7 for 13.

Rochester improved to 2-1. North Miami, playing their fourth game in nine days, fell to 3-1.

“I didn’t know what to expect other than North Miami was really good,” Rochester coach Joel Burrus said. “They just kept coming back and coming back. What a knockdown, drag-out fist fight that was.”

Baugh had scored one point in her varsity career prior to Wednesday. She did not play in a 55-46 loss to Caston Saturday and did not play through the first 36 minutes Wednesday.

With Gonzalez having fouled out in the first overtime and with him unsure whether he could play Lyla Bowers due to the quarters restriction, Burrus turned to Baugh.

“I’ve never gotten to a point where I’m sitting over there saying, ‘If we put this girl in, are we getting a ‘T (technical foul)’?’” Burrus said. “Because you’re getting to the end with quarters because those overtimes count as quarters, so you’re sitting there saying, ‘Well, I can’t bring (Jayla) Miller back in. Now I got to look at the next person.’”

And when North Miami clamped down to Jadyn Field in the post, she kicked to an open Baugh at the elbow. Baugh swished a 15-footer to put Rochester ahead for good at 50-48.

After Jadyn Field’s 3-point play, Musall hit a pullup 10-footer.

But Baugh took a skip pass from Brailyn Hunter and stuck the dagger, a 3-pointer from the right wing that gave Rochester a six-point lead with 52 seconds left.

Their biggest lead came at 59-50 on two Wilson free throws with 20.1 seconds left.

“I’m not going to brag here, but what the upperclassmen have taught – we were freshmen in the same situation that they are – so we took what Ella (McCarter), R.J. (Rylee Clevenger) and Audrey (Bolinger) taught us and taught it to them too, so then they can stay calm under pressure, and they’re very coachable from their teammates and their coaches,” Wilson said of the freshmen.

Before Baugh, North Miami had an unsung hero in sophomore reserve guard Audi Medina, who stepped into a 3-pointer from the right wing off a Musall diagonal pass with 16 seconds left in regulation to tie the game at 39. Her 3 answered Wilson’s two free throws with 22.2 seconds left that gave the Lady Zs a three-point lead.

Bowers drove to the basket, but Donaldson rejected her. Musall’s 55-footer at the buzzer was short, and the game went to overtime.

There were eight lead changes in the overtime, and all nine Rochester points came on free throws from Wilson and Gonzalez. That offset a Musall 3-pointer and a Sailors 15-foot banker from the right high post.

Wilson made a free throw to give Rochester a 48-47 lead, but Musall answered with a free throw with 1:05 left.

“Honestly, I think this one boosts our confidence a little bit, and this gives us a sense that we actually are after playing Caston,” Wilson said. “Nobody was happy with it, and we put in the work Monday and Tuesday to get the results that we wanted today.”

Musall outfought Jayla Miller for the loose ball after she missed the second free throw, but she air-balled a 3. Sailors then rotated to the left baseline and swatted Wilson’s shot.

After a North Miami timeout, Ali Field made a defensive play that prefaced what her fellow freshman Baugh would do offensively later.

First, she deflected Porscha Pickett’s post entry pass intended for Layla Hampton in the low block. After the ball deflected off Miller’s hands and Hampton, the ball rolled back to Sailors at the right elbow. She tried to drive, but Ali Field met her and reached for the exposed ball.

She tore it from her hands and handed it to Miller as she fell to the floor. Hampton forced a held ball with Miller with 2.1 seconds left.

The arrow pointed to North Miami. Jadyn Field tipped Musall’s first inbounds pass out of bounds with 1.1 seconds left. Sailors then missed a 17-footer short at the horn.

Onto a second overtime.

“The freshmen, what they were able to do,” Burrus said. “Miller gave us some valuable minutes.”

Rochester jumped out to a 5-0 lead on an Ali Field screen-and-roll layup and a Hunter 3-pointer, but neither team led by more than five points in regulation.

North Miami took their first lead at 17-15 on a Musall steal and bucket halfway through the second quarter.

Rochester took a 20-19 halftime lead on a Wilson driving layup.

Two baskets from Ali Field gave Rochester a 30-26 lead in the third quarter, but two Laylah Hampton baskets tied it at 30 through three quarters.

Kayden Donaldson gave North Miami a 31-30 lead on a free throw with 7:31 left, but Gonzalez somehow rimmed in a 3-pointer that hit the front of the rim and top of the backboard before dropping.

Her two free throws with 5:37 left gave Rochester their largest lead of the second half at 35-31.

Donaldson would eventually foul out with 3:38 left in the first overtime. She scored four points. She was coming off a 21-point game against Oregon-Davis the night before.

“This is the key: Donaldson was on the bench more than she was on the floor,” Burrus said.

Rochester also rolled to a 49-23 win in the JV game.

Rochester 59, North Miami 52 (2 OT)

NORTH MIAMI (52) (3-1)

Laney Musall 7 2-4 18, Porscha Pickett 1 0-0 3, Layla Hampton 4 0-0 9, Grace Sailors 4 3-6 11, Kayden Donaldson 1 2-3 4, Audi Medina 3 0-0 7, Laina Kling 0 0-0 0

TEAM: 20 7-13 52

ROCHESTER (59) (2-1)

Aubrey Wilson 3 9-12 15, Brailyn Hunter 2 2-4 8, Adalyn Gonzalez 1 8-10 11, Jadyn Field 3 2-3 9, Ali Field 5 0-0 10, Lyla Bowers 0 0-0 0, Hope Baugh 2 0-0 5, Jayla Miller 0 1-2 1

TEAM: 16 22-31 59

Three-point field goals:

North Miami 5 (Musall 2, Hampton, Medina, Pickett),

Rochester 5 (Hunter 2, Gonzalez, J. Field, Baugh)

Total fouls: North Miami 24, Rochester 16

Fouled out: Donaldson (NM), 3:38, first OT; Gonzalez (RHS), 1:05, first OT; Musall (NM), :20.1, second OT

Turnovers: North Miami 21, Rochester 17

Score by quarters

North Miami 12 7 11 9 9 4 – 52

Rochester 14 6 10 9 9 11 – 59

JV: Rochester 49, North Miami 23