Defensive-minded Lady Zs rout Wabash

Bowers, Hunter score 13, J. Field adds 10

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

Brailyn Hunter Lyla Bowers

WABASH — Despite the graduation losses of Ella McCarter, Rylee Clevenger and Audrey Bolinger, the Rochester girls basketball team has increased their scoring average from last year to this year from 40.0 to 41.4.

But that is not what has troubled Lady Z coach Joel Burrus. Rather, it has been their defense.

Knox, and particularly shooting guard Riley Taylor, tormented Rochester Wednesday before the Lady Zs pulled out a 51-46 win.

Their defense against host Wabash at Coolman Gymnasium Saturday was more what Burrus wanted the defense to be, and it started with a scoreless first quarter. The rout was on.

Brailyn Hunter and Lyla Bowers scored 13 points each, and Jadyn Field added 10 as the Lady Zs rolled to a 55-19 win.

Rochester scored the first 10 points of the game and went on another 16-0 run in the second quarter to increase the lead to 29-4.

Rochester hit five 3-pointers in the second quarter and eight for the game. Hunter and Bowers had three 3s each.

The 55 points scored were a season high. This marks the eighth time in Burrus’ four-year tenure that Rochester has scored 50 or more points in a game. Four of those eight have occurred this season, and this marks the first time in the Burrus era that they have scored 50 or more in back-to-back games.

The 19 points allowed were a season low, and it also marked the seventh time in Burrus’ tenure that the Lady Zs held an opponent under 20 points.

Bryleigh Boggs, Wabash’s leading scorer at 19 points per game, was held to eight.

Rochester improved to 5-5 overall and 1-3 in the Three Rivers Conference. Wabash fell to 2-7, 0-2.

Of Rochester’s four field goals in the first quarter, three of them came from the Field sisters in the post. The other was a Hunter 15-footer.

Burrus focused on the other end of the court.

“I thought we set the tone,” Burrus said. “Ten to nothing in the first quarter. We talked about how the Knox game, we weren’t happy with our defense in that game. It just wasn’t good enough. But it’s nice to be able to say that after you get a win. These past couple days, we’ve talked a lot about defense and rebounding. That’s what set the tone for us today. It wasn’t the 10 points, which we got some good looks in that first quarter.”

Much attention was paid to Boggs. Wabash coach Joe Kaufman moved Boggs all over the floor, from the perimeter to the high post to the “dunker’s spot,” an area near the lane between the back row wing and middle.

“I just thought we did a great job of really being honed into her, and I think that set the tone,” Burrus said. “Also, they were like, well crap, they’re going to take her away, and that was our whole game plan was we’ve got to lock her up.”

Offensively, Burrus said he was “shocked” that Wabash did not press, especially after Knox had success pressing in Rochester’s previous game.

Instead, Wabash kept tweaking its halfcourt zone and even played man-to-man.

“We’ve seen them run about four different zone looks,” Burrus said. “They’ve run a 1-2-2 press back into a 1-2-2 halfcourt. Then they’ve run the 1-3-1 halfcourt, and they’ve also run a 2-3 and an extended 2-3. Well, when you’ve got the freshmen out front – Gonzo (Adalyn Gonzalez), Bowers – I told them, I go, ‘You’re going to find out probably today if you’re able to read the defense very well.’ And I thought (Aubrey) Wilson did a good job of orchestrating what we needed to be in. I felt like we were very calm today. We played calm. We played loose, I felt like. It may have helped too that they weren’t all over us in the press. But I think with the way we played defense off the get-go, I think we took the wind out of their sails.”

Burrus praised Bowers for her shooting, noting that she can shoot the corner 3 when an opponent is in a 1-3-1 zone and can also shoot in transition.”

If Rochester’s offense was post-oriented in the first quarter, it was three-ball-oriented in the second.

Hunter had a four-game stretch in which she scored five points total. But in her last three games, she has scored in double figures in each and is averaging 13 ppg over that stretch.

“I’ve tried to shoot more in practice and tried to improve my shot and remember my mechanics when I’m shooting,” Hunter said.

Burrus reiterated during Hunter’s shooting struggles that he believed in her.

“That means a lot to me,” Hunter said. “That makes me be able to push through and keep my head up and keep shooting and just keep trying even harder to keep going.”

Rochester also routed Wabash 45-21 in the JV game. Kyleigh Little had 10 to lead the Lady Zs, Kyla Conley and Alexandria Cortes-Gustafson had nine each, Hope Baugh and Bowers had six each, and Jayla Miller had five.

Rochester 55, Wabash 19

ROCHESTER (55) (5-5, 1-3)

Aubrey Wilson 2 0-3 5, Brailyn Hunter 5 0-0 13, Adalyn Gonzalez 0 0-0 0, Jadyn Field 4 2-2 10, Ali Field 2 1-2 5, Lyla Bowers 3 4-4 13, Hope Baugh 2 0-0 5, Kyleigh Little 1 0-0 2, Kyla Conley 1 0-0 2, Jayla Miller 0 0-0 0, Alexandria Cortes-Gustafson 0 0-0 0

TEAM: 20 7-11 55

WABASH (19) (2-7, 0-2)

Pasyn Schuler 0 0-0 0, Haylee Friend 3 0-0 9, Bryleigh Boggs 3 2-2 8, Logan Wright 0 0-0 0, Elli Hall 1 0-0 2, Jaycee Jones 0 0-0 0, Quinn Myers 0 0-0 0, Avi Osborne 0 0-0 0, Rya Morgan 0 0-0 0, Kendylan Lochner 0 0-0 0

TEAM: 7 2-2 19

Three-point field goals:

Rochester 8 (Hunter 3, Bowers 3, Wilson, Baugh),

Wabash 3 (Friend 3)

Total fouls: Rochester 5, Wabash 13

Fouled out: Morgan (WAB), 4:53, fourth

Turnovers: Rochester 13, Wabash 18

Score by quarters

Rochester 10 19 9 17 – 55

Wabash 0 6 5 8 – 19

JV: Rochester 45, Wabash 21