BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC

Ella McCarter scored 12 points, and Aubrey Wilson added 11, but the Rochester girls basketball team lost to Manchester 55-47 at the RHS gym Saturday.
Jadyn Field added eight before fouling out with 3:37 left, and Rylee Clevenger hit a pair of 3-pointers in the fourth quarter and scored seven.
The game featured seven lead changes in the fourth quarter, the last coming on Brookelynn Buzzard’s 3-pointer with four minutes left to give Manchester a 46-43 lead.
Buzzard hit six 3-pointers and scored a game-high 23 points, and freshman teammate Emma Walker added 17.
Rochester had leads of 35-33, 37-35, 40-38 and 43-41 in the back-and-forth fourth quarter.

Rochester would get within 50-47 on a Brailyn Hunter free throw with 45.7 seconds left, but the Lady Squires made five of six free throws in the final 36.9 seconds to close the game out.
Manchester improved to 14-6 overall and 6-2 in the Three Rivers Conference. Rochester fell to 10-10, 5-2.
The loss drops Rochester to fourth place in the conference behind Lewis Cass (7-0), Whitko (7-1) and Manchester.
Rochester can still win a share of the conference title, but they will need to beat Lewis Cass at home Wednesday and Northfield on the road Thursday. They will also need Whitko to lose their TRC finale to Southwood Wednesday and Lewis Cass to lose to Maconaquah Friday.
They made it hard on themselves because they could not stop Buzzard, who had scored in double figures 15 times this season prior to Saturday.
“We lost her, I think, six or seven times,” Rochester coach Joel Burrus said. “We’ll go back in there in a minute. We do what we do, and our girls are confident in what we do. … The scouting report was about a page of Buzzard. And she has not shot the 3 well this year, but we knew if she caught fire, we better get out to her and get her stopped. She penetrated the lane in the first half. In the second half, she caught fire and was able to hit.”
The game was played in a tight window: Neither team led by more than six points until there was 24.7 seconds left.
All seven Rochester players scored, including Mia Howdeshell, who hit a 3-pointer in the second quarter to give Rochester a 16-10 lead; Audrey Bolinger, who got a free release on a sideline inbounds play and beat the Manchester defense down the court for a layup in the third quarter to make it 24-19; and Hunter, who swished a crucial 3-pointer with 3:10 left in the third quarter to get Rochester within 48-46.
They also got two Rylee Clevenger 3-pointers in the second half.
“Here we are, we light the lamp up and score 47, one of our better games here at home,” Burrus said. “We get hung up for 55. That’s just not us. I’m really frustrated. … And we gave up some crucial offensive rebounds late.
“I've really enjoyed coaching these kids this year. And you know, they’re beating themselves up in there, and we’re going to go in there and we’re going to go in there and we’re going to load in this together. We’re all a part of it, so we’ve got to figure it out. I told them, ‘We’ve got to get better. There’s still time to get better.’”
The 2004 Class 2A state championship team was honored on the occasion of its 20th anniversary with a meet-and-greet before the game and a pregame ceremony on the court.
All but four players returned for the ceremony.
Courtney Felke, who was not present, was honored for being the school’s all-time scoring leader with 1,707 points. Her mother Katie, an assistant coach on the 2004 team, accepted a plaque on her daughter’s behalf.
Manchester 55, Rochester 47
MANCHESTER (55) (14-6, 6-2)
Peyton Ream 1 0-0 2, Brookelynn Buzzard 7 3-4 23, Hadley West 0 0-0 0, Emma Walker 6 5-9 17, Gracie Lauer 0 0-0 0, Ava Sautter 0 1-4 1, Molly Schanepp 2 2-2 6, Hanna Stout 0 0-0 0, Kim Schroll 3 0-0 6
TEAM: 19 11-19 55
ROCHESTER (47) (10-10, 5-2)
Aubrey Wilson 4 1-2 11, Rylee Clevenger 2 1-2 7, Ella McCarter 3 5-8 12, Jadyn Field 4 0-0 8, Audrey Bolinger 1 0-1 2, Brailyn Hunter 1 1-3 4, Mia Howdeshell 1 0-0 3
TEAM: 16 8-16 47
Three-point field goals:
Manchester 6 (Buzzard 6),
Rochester 7 (Wilson 2, Clevenger 2, Howdeshell, Hunter, McCarter)
Total fouls: Manchester 16, Rochester 18
Fouled out: Field (RHS), 3:37, fourth
Turnovers: Manchester 16, Rochester 12
Score by quarters
Manchester 8 9 16 22 – 55
Rochester 9 9 14 15 – 47
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