Burrus disappointed in defense, but junior trio help Rochester pull out Knox win

Hunter leads with 14, J. Field adds double-double

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

Jadyn Field

Rochester girls basketball coach Joel Burrus was left wondering after Wednesday’s game against Knox at the RHS gym whether his players read the defensive scouting report that he puts together for games.

But whatever issues they had defensively, they made up for them on offense in a 51-46 win.

Brailyn Hunter hit three 3-pointers and tied her season high with 14 points, and Jadyn Field contributed a double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds. Aubrey Wilson, the point guard and the third member of the Rochester junior nucleus, scored seven, all in the second half.

Adalyn Gonzalez also had seven points, and Ali Field scored six.

Rochester improved to 4-5.

The balanced scoring offset Knox’s scorching hot Riley Taylor, who hit six 3-pointers and scored 23 points. But Rochester held her to one free throw in the fourth quarter.

Serenity Nava added 10, including seven in the fourth quarter, for Knox (3-8).

Rochester went 7 for 8 from the foul line in the fourth quarter. For the game, they made more free throws (17) than Knox attempted (14), even though Burrus was hit with a technical foul with 1:48 left.

“Our defense was not very good tonight,” Burrus said. “I am not happy with where our defense is in anything. That’s where I’m the most upset right now is with our defensive play.

“We were not engaged to Taylor. She scores 13 a game, and they score 30 a game. So we had her circled pretty heavily. Again, I told them, ‘Maybe I need to let you guys write the scouting report for the next game. Because when I give you a scouting report, I expect you to have these people marked, especially somebody like her. You let her stand and shoot and let her get going … I thought our defense was affected by our lack of offensive production in the first half.”

Rochester closed the third quarter on a 7-0 run, turning a 33-32 deficit into a 39-33 lead. They never looked back, and they had the response whenever Knox got close in the fourth quarter.

Gonzalez drove and fed Field for a layup to make it 41-38 after Elise Wolff had cut the lead to one on an elbow jumper.

Riley Messer cut back door for a layup to make it 41-40, but Hunter drilled a 3 from the right wing. Wilson added two free throws to make it 46-40.

“I told her, I’m like, ‘Hunter, we believe in you,’” Burrus said. “We wouldn’t be getting you the ball if we didn’t believe in you. We’ve got to have her shoot the basketball and shoot it with confidence if we’re going to be good.”

Burrus also praised Wilson for looking for Hunter.

“A lot of Wilson’s attacks draw that secondary help defender, in zone or man,” Burrus said. “If they’re in a 2-3 zone, and the ball reverses to Wilson, and she drives the ball to the nail head (at the free throw line), the defense sucks to it, and now somebody is usually going to be open on the perimeter. Usually, it’s going to be the opposite side. I thought Wilson did a good job of finding her.”

Nava was fouled with 1:42 left and awarded two free throws because officials determined she was in the act of shooting. After Nava’s first free throw, officials slapped Burrus with a technical.

Nava split her free throws, and then Taylor split her free throws. The lead was 46-42, and Knox had the ball back.

Taylor had a look at a 3-pointer from the right wing and missed. Rochester milked over 40 seconds off the clock before Wilson hit two free throws. The lead was back to six.

Nava hit a left baseline runner, but Hunter answered with two free throws. A Jadyn Field steal led to another Hunter free throw which made it a three-possession game at 51-44.

The first half was a rollercoaster ride. Taylor and Nava hit 3-pointers as Knox jumped out to an 8-1 lead, but Rochester went on a 18-2 run covering the first and second quarters. Gonzalez hit a 3-pointer and two free throws to start the run, and Hunter and Lyla Bowers each hit a 3. Jadyn Field also scored on a pair of putbacks, and Ali Field finished an open layup after a Wilson setup.

When Ali Field hit a free throw with 6:15 left in the half, Rochester led 19-10.

Knox then put on a press, and they went on a 13-1 run with Taylor scoring 11 points in less than two-and-a-half minutes. That included a stretch that included two Makenzie Sanders free throws, a Taylor trey and a Taylor layup, all without Rochester advancing the ball past halfcourt.

Taylor hit a top-of-the-key 3 with 2:22 left in the half to give Knox a 23-20 lead, and the lead was 24-22 at halftime.

The third quarter featured seven lead changes but when Hunter got a friendly rim on a triple with 1:44 left, Rochester had the lead for good at 35-33. A Jadyn Field 3-point play with 51.2 seconds left pushed the lead to five. Jadyn Field made another free throw with 10.7 seconds left as the lead reached 39-33 after three quarters.

“That was the game,” Knox first-year coach Rob Krueger said of the last part of the third quarter. “But we talked to the girls. It’s not always the last three minutes that cost you the game. It’s maybe some of the times during the game where you didn’t play as well as you thought you could. You may have turned the ball over. It was a 32-minute game, and we played, I thought, 20 to 25 good minutes, and the last three minutes, it got away from us a little bit. But I definitely saw some improvement out of our girls tonight.”

Rochester also won the two-quarter JV game 23-4.

Rochester 51, Knox 46

KNOX (46) (3-8)

Serenity Nava 4 1-2 10, Riley Taylor 8 1-2 23, Presley Messer 1 0-2 2, Elise Wolff 2 0-0 4, Jayla Patrick 1 2-4 4, Makenzie Sanders 0 3-4 3, Cheryl Barnes 0 0-0 0

TEAM: 16 7-14 46

ROCHESTER (51) (4-5)

Aubrey Wilson 1 4-4 7, Brailyn Hunter 4 3-4 12, Adalyn Gonzalez 1 4-6 7, Jadyn Field 5 2-4 12, Ali Field 2 2-4 6, Lyla Bowers 1 1-2 4, Hope Baugh 0 1-2 1

TEAM: 14 17-26 51

Three-point field goals:

Knox 7 (Taylor 6, Nava),

Rochester 6 (Hunter 3, Bowers, Wilson, Gonzalez)

Total fouls: Knox 20, Rochester 12

Technical foul: RHS bench, 1:48, fourth

Turnovers: Knox 17, Rochester 12

Score by quarters

Knox 10 14 9 13 – 46

Rochester 13 9 17 12 – 51

JV: Rochester 23, Knox 4