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BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
MONTICELLO — One day after the Rochester girls basketball team hit 10 3-pointers in a win over North White, the Lady Zs were on the receiving end of a shooting maelstrom.
Brooke Lindesmith hit four 3-pointers and scored a game-high 15 points, and Ava Ziolkowski also hit four treys and scored 14 points to lead Crown Point to a 58-18 win over Rochester in a Twin Lakes Holiday Invitational semifinal at Alva R. Staggs Gymnasium at Roosevelt Middle School Wednesday afternoon.
Crown Point shredded the nets for 13 3-pointers. Seven different players made at least one.
Emma Howdeshell led Rochester (7-8) with six points, but no other Lady Z had more than one field goal.
Rochester coach Joel Burrus later praised Howdeshell’s competitiveness, saying she “didn’t play to the scoreboard.”
Crown Point played a switching man-to-man defense with each defender quickly passing off the player they were guarding when a Rochester player would set a screen.
Crown Point (11-6), a four-time defending sectional champion and a state champion as recently as 2021, has four starters 5-10 or taller. Rochester’s tallest starter is the 5-6 Sydney Haughs.
Having to shoot over Crown Point players’ heads while also trying to fit passes over and around thickets of long arms, Rochester had more turnovers (19) than points. The 18 points were a season low.
Rochester scored the first four points before Crown Point countered with a 25-0 run. The Lady Bulldogs hit six 3-pointers during the run, including three by Lindesmith, a senior and Holy Cross recruit, and two by the 6-1 junior Ziolkowski.
“I think tough from the point of they stretch the 3-point line out,” Burrus said of trying to stop Crown Point’s perimeter shooting. “And their length, 24 (Ziolkowski), she’s got so much length, and our tops are not tall. That was the one thing I was really disappointed in. That’s not our brand. … I don’t know if we’ve given up 13 3s in a four-game stretch at times. 24, she’s going to be a Division I player, but we can control our defense, and we should have made them do other things.”
Crown Point often got a paint touch before a ball reversal would find an open shooter.
“We knew against their zone, if we could go inside-out, that that was what they were going to give up was that deep 3-point shot, and proud of the kids for making that extra pass and stepping up and hitting some big shots,” Crown Point coach Chris Seibert said.
As for Rochester, they hit three 3-pointers – one each from Rily Holloway, Rylee Clevenger and Mia Howdeshell. But finding ways to create passing lanes and move the ball – Burrus uses phrases like “v-cut” and “walking your man down” – is a work in progress.
“We’ve got to control the pace of play,” Burrus said. “We let them in some way really control the pace of play. And that’s something that’s difficult to control the pace against somebody that good.”
Crown Point 58, Rochester 18
ROCHESTER (18) (7-8)
Rily Holloway 1 0-0 3, Rylee Clevenger 1 0-0 3, Kallie Watson 0 0-0 0, Emma Howdeshell 2 2-2 6, Sydney Haughs 0 1-4 1, Maddie Heinzmann 1 0-0 2, Mia Howdeshell 1 0-0 3, Darah Strasser 0 0-0 0, Ella McCarter 0 0-0 0, Elizabeth Weaver 0 0-0 0
TEAM: 6 3-6 18
CROWN POINT (58) (11-6)
Emily Phillips 1 0-0 3, Brooke Lindesmith 5 1-2 15, Ali Rawls 2 2-2 7, Ava Ziolkowski 5 0-0 14, Abbi Foster 3 1-2 7, Emma Charles 1 0-0 3, Bella Gonzalez 0 0-0 0, Rae Holok 0 0-0 0, Camdyn Gliem 0 1-2 1, Kaitlyn Jaeger 1 0-0 3, Madison Dubiel 0 0-0 0, Alivia Otten 1 0-0 2, Jillian Brown 1 0-0 3
TEAM: 20 5-8 58
Three-point field goals:
Rochester 3 (Holloway, M. Howdeshell, Clevenger),
Crown Point 13 (Lindesmith 4, Ziolkowski 4, Rawls, Phillips, Brown, Jaeger, Charles)
Total fouls: Rochester 10, Crown Point 9
Turnovers: Rochester 19, Crown Point 11
Score by quarters
Rochester 4 4 4 6 – 18
Crown Point15151513–58
