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BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
The turnover margin between the Lewis Cass and Rochester girls basketball teams on Nov. 22 might have been wide, but the margin on the scoreboard was close.
In a somewhat exasperating conclusion, the Lady Zs finished ahead in both categories, pulling out a 32-28 win at the RHS gym.
Rily Holloway scored a game-high 13 points, including a backcourt steal and layup with 7:04 left in the third quarter that put Rochester ahead for good at 18-16. Emma Howdeshell added seven points, and Kallie Watson had six, including a long 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer.
Mylie Sipe hit a pair of 3-pointers and scored 10 points for Lewis Cass. Freshman Aftin Griffin hit three 3-pointers and had nine.
Rochester won their third straight game and improved to 3-4. Lewis Cass fell to 1-3.
Rochester beat the Lady Kings for the 10th straight time and has not lost to Lewis Cass since Nov. 22, 2011.
Lewis Cass committed 13 turnovers in the first half while Rochester had just two, yet Lewis Cass took a 16-14 lead into halftime, and Rochester needed Watson’s long triple to even get that close.
Rochester first-year coach Joel Burrus switched to a fullcourt press to start the second half, and Lewis Cass had to call three timeouts within the first five minutes of the half.
Howdeshell hit two free throws to tie the game at 16, and Holloway’s steal and layup immediately followed. Later, Howdeshell hit a pullup 12-footer in the lane that was set up by a Sydney Haughs offensive rebound. A Rylee Clevenger after another second chance capped a 12-0 run covering the second and third quarters and gave Rochester their biggest lead at 23-16.
“In the film room today, we said if we get to the situations that we need to, we’re going box press, and we’re going to make those pups that they’ve got earn it, and they struggled against that,” Burrus said. “If we don’t go to the press, I don’t know if we get over 20 (points) tonight. That got us going. We’ve just got to start getting some more consistency on the offensive end.”
Lewis Cass would get as close as 31-28 in the final minute on a Sipe 3-pointer, but Howdeshell made it a two-possession game with 5.3 seconds with a free throw that closed out the scoring.
Rochester has scored as many as 40 points just once in seven games. Burrus said the mood in the locker room was more akin to a loss, but he said that the feeling of collective dissatisfaction is a sign that the team was “getting it.”
“It’s a little mixture of both,” Howdeshell said when asked if the game felt more like a loss than a win. “We could’ve have done a lot better on the offensive side especially. We’ve just got to start making shots is what I think. … We’re holding teams to pretty low numbers, but we’ve got to score if we want to win.”
Said Howdeshell of Watson’s 3-pointer at the first-half buzzer: “That was big. We needed that to get our energy and momentum for the second half.”
Lewis Cass went from a flat 2-3 zone through the first three quarters to a man-to-man with quick guards Griffin, Anna Hedrick and Faith Helvie on top in the fourth quarter.
“We’ve got to figure the shooting out,” Burrus said. “I’m beating my head up on a wall. … I was a guard. We shoot in practice. We’ve got to look at the film, and I think we’re shooting when the close-out is a hug to us, and we’re not showing shot and taking one hard dribble. … We should be able to take care of a packed-in zone like that. Our movement is good. We’re getting good movement. We’ve got to get the ball inside more.”
The JV game was canceled due to Lewis Cass’ lack of numbers.
Rochester 32, Lewis Cass 28
LEWIS CASS (28) (1-3)
Anna Hedrick 2 1-2 5, Aftin Griffin 3 0-0 9, Faith Helvie 0 0-0 0, Mylie Sipe 4 0-0 10, Elly Logan 1 2-2 4, Kylie Logan 0 0-0 0, Lauran Walker 0 0-0 0
TEAM: 10 3-4 28
ROCHESTER (32) (3-4)
Rily Holloway 5 0-0 13, Rylee Clevenger 1 0-0 3, Emma Howdeshell 1 5-6 7, Sydney Haughs 0 1-2 1, Ella McCarter 1 0-2 2, Maddie Heinzmann 0 0-2 0, Kallie Watson 2 0-0 6
TEAM: 10 6-12 32
Three-point field goals:
Lewis Cass 5 (Griffin 3, Sipe 2),
Rochester 6 (Holloway 3, Watson 2, Clevenger)
Total fouls: Lewis Cass 12, Rochester 5
Turnovers: Lewis Cass 26, Rochester 10
Score by quarters
Lewis Cass 5 11 6 6 – 28
Rochester 3 11 14 4 – 32
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