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Next up at Twin Lakes Invite: Crown Point in semifinals at 11 a.m. today
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
MONTICELLO — Rochester girls basketball coach Joel Burrus has said that he is so
confident that Rily Holloway and Rylee Clevenger are going to make 3-pointers that maybe he is too confident at times.
His confidence was not misplaced against North White in the quarterfinals of the Twin Lakes Holiday Invitational at Alva R. Staggs Gymnasium at Roosevelt Middle School on Tuesday.
Holloway buried six 3-pointers and scored a game-high 22 points, and Clevenger scored all 12 of her points on four 3-pointers to lead the Lady Zs to a 52-27 win over the Lady Vikings.
Rochester improved to 7-7 and earned a meeting with Crown Point in the semifinals at 11 a.m. today. Crown Point edged Mount Vernon (Fortville) 49-44 in overtime in their quarterfinal.
Westfield will meet Class 3A, No. 1 Twin Lakes in the other semifinal.
If Rochester beats Crown Point, they will play the Westfield-Twin Lakes winner in the final at 7:30 p.m. If they fall to Crown Point, they will play the Westfield-Twin Lakes loser in the third-place game at 6 p.m.
Tessa Robertson had 16 points and seven rebounds for North White, who lost their sixth straight game and fell to 3-11. North White senior point guard Abigale Spry, who hit a buzzer beater to win at Rochester on Dec. 29, 2020, and who has scored in double figures five times this season, missed her fifth straight game.
“I told them before we got on the bus today this morning … in walkthrough … I told them, ‘We’ve got to get better in this tournament.’ Today we took a step forward. How do we do tomorrow?” Burrus said.
Holloway nailed three 3-pointers and also hit a straight-on runner from 17 feet just before the first-quarter buzzer as part of a game-opening 21-2 run. She has hit a team-high 33 3-pointers this season.
“After the first shot, I was kind of feeling good, so I was like, ‘OK, this isn’t too bad, so let’s keep shooting,’” Holloway said.
Robertson hit a short post turnaround to end a 7:43 scoring drought, but Rochester followed with seven more unanswered points on a Clevenger 3-pointer, a Kallie Watson putback and two Emma Howdeshell free throws with 4:07 left in the half to make it 28-4.
The lead was 33-10 at halftime. Holloway and Clevenger then combined for five more triples in the third quarter as the lead got as big as 31.
“We know what they’re capable of doing, and we see it in practice,” Burrus said. “We know what Holloway is capable of doing when she gets her feet set. When she gets her feet set, she’s a really good shooter, and I felt like she played well for the most part against North Miami too. She hit some big shots in that game.”
Rochester scored more points in the first three quarters (48) than they had in any full game prior to Tuesday.
While North White’s 2-3 zone permitted 3-point looks, Rochester’s 2-3 zone forced 19 turnovers against the Spry-less Lady Vikings.
“I was hard on them yesterday in practice because I felt like we took a step back defensively against North Miami,” Burrus said. “I mean, we’ve been consistently holding teams in the 30s, and we felt like against North Miami they were going to be good with (Logan) Mouser or without her. We put a lot into that game, and for our defense to not show up like we planned in that game, that was a disappointment for us. So today… we were locked in defensively.”
Holloway said the defense was a team effort. Rochester had allowed a season-worst 48 points in a loss to North Miami five days earlier.
“I think we put a lot more pressure on them, finding the weaker players and putting more pressure on them, and our wings help a lot with that,” Holloway said. “If the tops – Rylee and I – are out of position or something, we were covering the high post a little better.”
Rochester 52, North White 27
NORTH WHITE (27) (3-11)
Katie Stevens 1 0-0 3, Carly Spry 0 0-0 0, Callie Hunt 0 0-0 0, Autumn Reiff 4 0-1 8, Tessa Robertson 5 6-7 16, Morgan Carter 0 0-0 0, Mady Westerhouse 0 0-0 0, Sable George 0 0-1 0
TEAM: 10 6-9 27
ROCHESTER (52) (7-7)
Rily Holloway 8 0-0 22, Rylee Clevenger 4 0-0 12, Kallie Watson 1 0-0 2, Emma Howdeshell 2 4-4 8, Sydney Haughs 3 0-2 6, Maddie Heinzmann 1 0-0 2, Mia Howdeshell 0 0-0 0, Darah Strasser 0 0-0 0, Emily Vigar 0 0-0 0, Ella McCarter 0 0-0 0, Elizabeth Weaver 0 0-0 0
TEAM: 19 4-6 52
Three-point field goals:
North White 1 (Stevens),
Rochester 10 (Holloway 6, Clevenger 4)
Total fouls: North White 7, Rochester 12
Turnovers: North White 19, Rochester 10
Score by quarters
North White 2 8 9 8 – 27
Rochester 17 16 15 4 – 52
